Hourglass
by Aiikawarazu
Summary: He was a delinquent, constantly expelled due to bad behavior. She was the teachers' favorite, top of her class. One day they met, and they didn't know each other, nor did they intend to. He thought she was snobby. She thought he wasn't worth her time. But one day he wrapped his scarf around her – and it was then when they realized that maybe, they were deeply in love. Eremika AU.
1. Prologue

_A/N: Hi everyone! I'm back with a new eren x mikasa fanfiction. This is a story about eren and mikasa in an entirely different, modern highschool AU. It's not like I don't like canon universe, but I feel there's not much I can write in canon universe without ruining the story (copyright of the story goes to Isayama and Isayama alone, so I don't want to do anything that would spoil the already-great plot of the canon story)._

_The characters will be different, though I will try to keep them as close to their canon personalities as possible. But sometimes I might rewrite them, or change things about them, either to satisfy my writing desire or boost my muse._

_ And with that, please enjoy the first chapter (it's still a prologue). And please, please, please, review review and review! I'm a review whore and i constantly need feedbacks to live._

_Cheers._

* * *

"That is my place."

Mikasa turned to gaze into a pair of emerald green eyes that stared to her. The owner – a dark-haired boy with average height, lean build, and somewhat dark skin, stared back at her. Deep creases decorated his brows as he watched her through narrowed eyes, clearly none too pleased at her sudden invasion on his privacy.

"I-I'm sorry," she said, getting up immediately. "I thought… no one is sitting here…"

"Well I am, so get off." His words were cold, short and mean. He walked past her as though she was a ghost before leaning against the wall, and reaching into his pocket to pull out a pack of cigarette. He lighted one cigarette and blew a long, heavy puff of smoke. Then it was as though he suddenly remembered he wasn't alone in the vicinity, and his eyes drifted back to her.

"What are you still doing here?" he said, not as much with wonder as was with annoyance, and she recoiled, startled at his harsh tone.

"I…," she started, not quite sure what to say. What should she say? She only wanted to seek solace here, away from the noises, the wandering eyes, the people who only wanted to know but didn't want to help – and to make prejudices when they know they could.

"I just… wanted to rest." It wasn't a complete lie. In this moment, she wasn't sure if she could stand to be around them. Solitude was what she needed, away from people, until she could hear the faint sound of her heart beating. A place where she could be herself, for just a moment, until she could gather her strength and face them again – with the mask that she always wore.

He laughed, none too pleasantly at her answer. "Top student in class, wanted to rest? What do you even need rest for? I thought you're busy chasing up your grades." He drew another long breath from his cig, and puffed the smoke in the cold afternoon air, when her voice answered, colder and sharper than usual. "You know nothing."

It was a horrible first meeting, between a guy who was constantly on the verge of being expelled, and a girl who was the teachers' favorite, always the top of her class. They didn't know each other, nor did they intend to. He was bratty, and she was silent. He acted like he knew everything, when he didn't. She concealed everything, even though in truth she knew more than he did.

He had fucked every other girl in school and didn't bother to keep count.

She had turned down every guy in school who wanted to go out with her.

He didn't want to fall in love, and nor did she.

But it all began when he wrapped his scarf around her – as he stared into her pair of grey, clouded eyes – and it was then when they realized that maybe, they were deeply in love.

* * *

_A/N: This is just a prologue and it's kinda short - but this is something i've wanted to write for such a long time, and it's going to be a long project. Anyone who wanted to help me by being my beta/proofreader are more than welcome! To be honest, I really need beta readers and your helps will be greatly appreciated!_

_Next chapter is coming - stay tuned!_

_PS: Reviews are like cream on my oreo._


	2. In the Cage We Call Walls

_AN: Hi, everyone! I've finally come up with the first chapter. This chapter is mostly about introduction, about Mikasa and the world around her: school, family, and friends. None of the original SNK characters except Mikasa made their appearance here yet, but I promise they're going to - soon enough! __Also, please keep in mind that the Mikasa here is different from her canon personalities. I won't alter her too much, cause I love canon Mikasa. But she is going to be different - so don't hate._

_Special thanks to Dr. Archangel and my friend Adrian for continuously providing me with useful inputs, and being the best beta-readers. I won't make the first chapter without you._

_Edited slightly on 03/19 to fix some stuff. This story takes place in October, not May._

_PS: Reviews are better than Nutella_

_Cheerios._

* * *

**_-Dream-_**

It wasn't the first time she had this dream.

She was standing on top of a wall. A great wall, towering over a small city where little houses of grey stones and orange roofs were built adjacent to each other, cramped in a small space caged in by the giant wall. The beautiful night sky stretched out as far as her eyes could see. Where the milky clouds parted, she could see tiny, twinkling speckles in the otherwise dark sky. The chilly wind, the darkness, and the tranquil serenity surrounding her were beautiful – yet it was bizarre to realize that the scenery in front of her was nothing more than a dream.

A strange, weird dream that felt more vivid than her reality.

She took a step toward the edge of the walls, and drew back as she peered into the dark ground – fifty or forty meters below her. Should she jump? This was just a dream, even if she jumped, she would float, wouldn't she? At least, she wouldn't die.

But then, always at the very same time, when her feet had been halfway off the edge and she wondered whether she would float, or fall straight down to the ground below – a voice would call out to her.

_Do you know why the world on that side of the wall was unoccupied?_

She would turn around to see who spoke up to her, and then she would wake up before she was able to see him.

Or at least, that's what always happened. But not this time.

She turned around, and then she saw him. It was definitely _him_ – not her. A boy of average build, standing not far behind her. She narrowed her eyes to see him clearer, but there was not much she could see.

_Mikasa!_ came a voice from the back of her mind, but she turned her head away. She didn't want to be called now. She had to see him. Who was that boy?

_Mikasa, wake up! You're going to be late for school!_

She opened her eyes wide. The scenery of her bedroom greeted her, slowly coming into focus. Her mother stood in the entrance to her room, hands on her slim hips, as she looked at Mikasa with an eyebrow arched. "How long are you going to be sleeping for? It's almost eight," she said.

Mikasa rubbed her eyes tiredly and swept off her bangs from her eyes. Every time she had that dream she always woke up more tired than when she had gone to bed. _What was that dream? And why was the other side of the wall left unoccupied?_

She wanted to know, but she always woke up before she ever found out the answer.

"Mikasa… are you crying?"

"Huh?" her mother's sudden question startled her. She touched the corner of her eyes felt the damp, moist streak of tears on her face. She was indeed crying. _Because of the dream?_ She could hardly believe it.

"What were you dreaming about?"

"I…," she stared confused at the crystal drops on the tip of her fingers. "I don't… remember."

"Alright," her mother seemed to have dismissed the topic. "Breakfast is ready."

"Toast is fine – I'll be late if I don't head out soon."

"Just eat a little," her mother insisted, and Mikasa knew it's better not to argue the point. "Okay," she nodded. "I'll get dressed first."

As her mother was heading downstairs and swung her bedroom door closed behind her, Mikasa kicked off her blanket and began to roam her bedroom to gather her stuff – uniforms, books, jacket, and umbrella. As she dressed, she couldn't help but let her mind recall once again about the strange dream. It wasn't the first time she had seen that dream. Yet, it was the first time she had been crying when she woke up.

Was it because she finally – almost – get to see the boy?

_But why was she crying just because she finally got to see him?_

Pulling her sweater from the top of her head, she clicked the door handle open and headed out of her room.

She didn't have time to think about it. At least not now.

* * *

Thirty minutes later she was already heading out to the street, with a fresh buttered toast between her teeth. She forced herself to swallow one or two spoons of porridge that her mother had prepared, though she really wasn't hungry. "I'm off," she called to her mother, who replied, "Have a safe trip." Mikasa was halfway out of the front door when she suddenly turned back, and stared at the older woman, who was now piling up the empty breakfast plates to put in the dish.

"Mom," she called hesitantly. Her mother's eyes returned to her.

"Yes…?" Mikasa inhaled. She opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. "Nothing," she said, shaking her head dismissively. Ignoring her mother's questioning looks, Mikasa swung the door closed and ran to the street before she could ask another question.

_Her mother was wearing a long-sleeved shirt again today._

She bit her toast and ran faster, pacing her way on the sidewalk and passing through strangers, her book bag flung on her shoulder. Slipping through a group of high school students, she tapped her card on the ticket machine and the gates flew open. She hopped inside the train just in time before the doors slide to a close, and the train departed.

Sighing in relief, she threw herself on the nearest empty chair and stared out of the window. It was the same town, same scenery, same places that she had always seen in the past seventeen years of her life. Nothing had changed, except maybe a few minor things here and there. It was plain, boring, very different from the places she had seen in her dreams.

_Some things just aren't meant to be told_.

A long, heavy breath escaped her as the image of her mother on a long-sleeved shirt once again invaded her mind. She put down her book bag to her lap and put her arms around it, pressing it close to her chest.

She had noticed the dark purple blotches on her mother's arm underneath the sleeve, horribly visible against her pale, milky skin. Those were fresh bruises, she hadn't seen them last night. And though her mother tried to cover them, those horrendous bruises couldn't have been more obvious to her eyes.

_But some things aren't meant to be told._

Yes, she had familiarized herself with the number one rule in her household ever since she was able to think. Don't ask, don't tell, and you'll be fine. She straightened herself on her seat and slowly, her painfully plain expression returned.

* * *

**_-Carpe Diem: Of Beauty and Carelessness-_**

It was 8.45 by the time she reached school.

The small town of Inazuma didn't really have that many high schools in it. There was one public high school in each parts of the town – namely north, east, west, and south. There were also several private high schools – which were twice as expensive from the public schools, but none too fancy, unlike those in big towns. Students were admitted entrance to the public schools based on their grades and their places of residence. Of all the public high schools, North High School was the most popular and highly-favored, due to its high academic achievements and grade standards. And that was the school Mikasa was admitted into.

"Good morning, Mikasa."

"Good morning, Ayako," replied Mikasa, addressing a tall, slim girl who was walking toward her in small but hasty paces. Mikasa automatically paused to let her catch up. "It's cold today, isn't it?" said Ayako when she finally caught up. "Summer is going to be over soon," she moaned, pushing her long, brown bang from her forehead.

Complaints were Ishijima Ayako's most defining characteristic. The weather, school, the teachers, the commuter train, boys – she _always_ found something to complain about. Though, she had many other defining characteristics besides of that, thankfully. She was a very attractive girl. Her hair was long and wavy, falling down softly to her waist and dyed with a honey-brown color that matched her slightly dark-brown eyes. Her complexion was fair, flawless, and smooth. There was almost never a single freckle or acne on her face (though when there was one, you could absolutely hear her complaining about it nonstop – all day long). She was positively lovely, and she knew it, too.

And that was probably why she changed boyfriend every two or three weeks – never limiting herself short of the options with the amount of guys queued up in the line, competing to get her attentions.

She was also never a big fan of the idea of monogamy, which basically meant that her relationships mostly ended with her breaking them up, or her screwing with other guys.

"Yeah, it's cold today," replied Mikasa, a small smile on the corner of her lips. Today was indeed rather chilly – with September fast approaching its end, summer was almost over, and though the weather was still quite warm, autumn was already in the air. Students were already putting on their thick, long-sleeved uniform. "It will better at noon… Ayako…?"

It was then when Mikasa realized that, beneath her thick makeup, her classmate was actually very pale. She staggered a few steps forward, and Mikasa soon felt Ayako's weight on her (she was _very_ light). "Ayako..?" Mikasa called again. She raised both of her arms to support Ayako so that she wouldn't fall face-first to the ground. "Are you okay..?" It was a stupid question, because the girl most likely did not feel okay, but Mikasa couldn't think of anything better to ask.

"I- I think I feel sick."

"Okay," said Mikasa. "Um, can you walk? I'll take you to the nurse's office."

"Yeah, I think so."

It was a short trip to the nurse's office, and Mikasa soon had got Ayako to one of the empty beds in the infirmary (the nurse was out). She leaned herself on the windowsill while Ayako slung one arm to cover her eyes, inhaling and exhaling quietly. Mikasa watched her closely. She knew what the girl was going to say next, but she waited anyway.

"Mikasa…," Ayako started, but Mikasa cut her sharp.

"It was the third time this month," and Ayako was hushed immediately. Sometimes she wished Mikasa's memories weren't that good. "If you don't tell me what's going on…"

"I know," said Ayako, swallowing deeply. She put down her arm, but instead of staring at Mikasa she chose to stare at the empty ceilings. "I think… I think I might be…"

"Pregnant..?" supplied Mikasa helpfully, and Ayako winced. Mikasa merely shrugged and continued flatly, "You also told me the same thing on March. And December last year. And the last two times were all just false alarms. Have you checked this time?"

"No, I'm too afraid," said Ayako, her voice was near whisper. This time she slung a pillow to cover her head. "But… but this time I might be pregnant for real…"

"How long has this been going on…?"

Ayako put down her pillow slowly, and stared at her dark-haired friend, who was gazing at her rather emotionlessly. "About… a month. Or a little more, I think."

"Then you definitely have to check."

"But I'm afraid…."

Mikasa bit her lips. Her patience was wearing thin, and she needed to hold back the retorts that already threatened to pour out. "I'm going to class," she said, ending the argument by flinging her book bag over her shoulder. The bell for the first period had rung about fifteen minutes ago and she didn't want to be trapped here, alone with a weeping Ayako. To be honest, it still surprised her how someone could be so careless, yet too afraid to bear the consequences. "And next time you fuck, try to put on some condoms." _This had happened three fucking times, she should be old enough to learn already._ She was about to make her way out of the infirmary, when Ayako's thin hands suddenly grabbed her sleeve.

"No! Don't go, Mikasa. I need you here."

"The bell had already rung."

"I know but… please, can you just stay?"

Mikasa stared at her friend who looked back at her rather pleadingly. She did seem sick – her pink lips were pale, and the hints of rosy tints on her cheeks were now gone. Even her eyes were dim. Mikasa sighed.

"Okay, but only if you promise to sleep right away and not say a single word," she finally receded, pulling up a chair to sit beside Ayako's bed.

"Promise, I promise," said the other girl quickly, settling back down on her bed. Five minutes later, she already drifted off to sleep.

_She's better asleep than when she's awake_, Mikasa thought. Having nothing else to do, she pulled out a Japanese Literature book from her bag and began to read. Little did she know, as she flipped through the pages of her books and began immersing herself in the passages, that the incident with Ayako was just a beginning of a painfully tiresome day, which was still so far from being over.

* * *

**_-The Transfer Student-_**

It was lunch when Mikasa was finally able to get to her class. The nurse – Ms. Ral, came in and insisted that Mikasa go to class instead of being by Ayako's bed all day long. Mikasa, all too glad of the opportunity to escape the room, eagerly agreed to the nurse's suggestion. Meanwhile, Ayako – who felt that she didn't want to be alone, asked if she could be excused to go home, to which the nurse reluctantly, but finally – agreed.

So the girls parted ways – Ayako went home to get a bed rest and Mikasa climbed the stairs to the second floor, in which all second-year classrooms are located.

The commotion she found in classroom 2-1, her classroom, however, was nothing like what she had expected.

"Mikasa!" came a shriek that Mikasa had been too familiar with. "You came in late! Where were you?"

"I know, " said Mikasa, putting her school bag on the table and starting to sort her things into the drawers. "Ayako was sick, I had to see her to the infirmary."

"Does this have anything to do with boys?"

"Probably," said Mikasa dismissively, looking back at her asker – a thin girl with plain face, a pair of dark eyes, and dark brown hair. Nanako had been her friend since middle school, and the fact that they met again in high school either meant that fate wanted something for them – or was bored with them. Either way, it didn't really matter. Mikasa liked the companion of Nanako – though honestly, she never enjoyed the companion of other people too much.

She had always preferred being alone.

"What did I miss?" she asked, attempting to start a conversation. For a moment she thought she had asked a wrong question. Nanako inhaled deeply and her eyes bulged. She looked like she was about to burst. Then she shrieked again, with a voice of several kilo decibels that made Mikasa's eyes immediately jumped to the glass on the windows, wondering if they would break anytime soon. "You have to _know_ this, Mikasa! This morning, a completely awesome thing happened…"

"There's a new transfer student in class," came a cool voice from behind her, interrupting Nanako before she got to spoil her point.

"Reika!" screamed Nanako as Mikasa turned to face the dark-haired, dark-eyed and yellow-skinned girl who was sitting on the table beside her. Her hair was cut short, and her tall and athletic build made her look even more boyish. "You spoiled my fun!" The girl called Reika only grinned. "I love doing that," she replied.

"A transfer student? In the middle of the term?" asked Mikasa. She was beginning to get interested. "Is it a guy or a girl?"

"A guy," replied Reika again. Mikasa raised her eyebrow. "Did they tell us where he was from?"

"East High School, apparently." Mikasa's eyebrow was raised even further. Inazuma East High School was most likely no one's favorite high school – its academic achievement was poorest among the four high schools in Inazuma, and it was famous as the delinquent hangout place.

"Why did he transfer here – did he get expelled?" Reika only shrugged at her question. "Dunno," she said. "But it could be… after all, he's got that air around him – wouldn't be surprised if he's a delinquent. But he…."

"He's really handsome! Mikasa, you have to see him!" Nanako once again chimed in excitedly, this time taking away Reika's chance to talk as a payback. Mikasa didn't comment on that. Nanako had her eyes for almost every guy, not only in school but even from other schools, most of whom she never dared to approach, and were too busy to pay any attention to her. She would be impressed by Nanako calling the transfer student 'handsome' – if she hadn't heard her using that word to describe almost fifty other guys before.

So instead of commenting to Nanako's remark, she asked. "What was his name?"

"Eren Yeager."

* * *

_Eren is the new transfer student! What do you think? Do you like the OCs? This is my first time trying to build OCs and take on a highschool AU concept, so please tell me if you like em!_

_Next chapter is going to be Eren and Mikasa's first meeting ~ don't miss that!_

_PS: I'm just a review whore. So please, drop me your reviews!_

_See you in the next chapter._


	3. On That Day, September 28th

**A/N: After two days in front of the laptop, refusing to go out, and constantly dosing myself on canned coffee and hot chocolate (and feeling as though my brain has been fried), I proudly present to you an update of this fic!**

**Thanks to Brandon who constantly remind me and kick my ass whenever I've been slacking off and not doing my job (exactly an editor's work), and to my friend Adrian for his great, great help in rephrasing some of the stuff in this chapter.**

**And of course, thank you to ALL who reviewed, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH for reviewing, for reading, for even considering that my work is worth reading. You don't know how you guys can REALLY boost up my mood and keep me motivated to write more! So don't forget, if you enjoy my works, please, please, please drop me your reviews. It's OK too to share your ideas with me, if you want 'so and so' to do some stuff... well, if you know what I mean *smirk***

**Without further ado, I present to you chapter 2 of Hourglass!**

**PS: I'm just a review whore.**

**Edited slightly on 4/1 to change some of the words/conversations based on Ashley's suggestion. Thank you so much girl, I love you xoxo.**

**Cheerios.**

* * *

_Last chapter: Mikasa had a strange dream about a dystopian earth where one side of the wall was heavily occupied, while the other side of it was strangely empty. She saw a boy in her dream, but was woken up before she could see his face, and found out that she was actually crying because of her dream. Ishijima Ayako, Mikasa's classmate, suddenly felt ill for the third time of the month and told Mikasa that she might be pregnant. However, Mikasa, having heard too much of the same tale from Ayako, felt rather irritated with the girl who never seemed to learn to take responsibilities, and didn't really pay attention to her. Meanwhile, Mikasa's class welcomed a new transfer student, who was rumored to be a heavy delinquent and expelled from his previous school: Eren Yeager._

* * *

_**-Repetoire-**_

Life is an hourglass.

It wasn't the first time she had thought of that. Life was a mere container filled with the golden sands of time. When one observed the hourglass, they could see the tiny grains of sands slowly falling – passing through the bottleneck to the other side of an identical shape – until the part above was cleared, and its other half part below finally look like what its twin once looked like – full with the sands that marked time. And then, feeling the need to fill in the empty part once more – the device would be turned, and the same repetition would occur... over and over again.

But she – she was not the observer. She was trapped inside, experiencing the same repetition of things as the hourglass was turned over, and the sands of time rushed through her. It was always a repetoire – this town, the people she met, the places she went to... They were all fragments of a life she had been too familiar with. She had grown up here – all the past seventeen years of her life had been spent here – in this small town. She entered elementary school, and left it to attend middle school. Only three years after that, she entered high school. Soon she would graduate from high school and enter college – and then she would finally be thrown in the world of adults.

And those were the stepping stones that marked the beginnings of new chapters in her life, were they not? The beginnings that – she realized, were nothing more than her own illusions. Every time it happened, it was as if she was given a fresh start, until she experienced the things that were all too familiar… And then she realized that it wasn't a fresh start after all – it was her prison turning, the giant hourglass – and she was forced to repeat the same routine once more – new schools, new people, same old problems, and same old things.

Nothing had changed in her life, and probably nothing ever would. It seemed like her path had already been set even before she was able to open up her eyes. She will be trapped inside the hourglass forever, unable to escape, though this life was choking her to death. And the only thing that constantly moved in her life was the flow of sands – marking the ticking of the clock, and the passing of time.

* * *

**_-Of the Beginning and False Hopes-_**

"Mikasa. Mikasa. _Mikasa_!"

Mikasa snapped out of her thoughts. Nanako's face was staring at her from across the table, her hand was on Mikasa's shoulder, shaking it rather vigorously to return her to reality.

"Are you OK?" she said, looking concerned.

"Sorry," Mikasa muttered. She must have been spacing out for a while now. Nanako was in the middle of chattering happily about the new transfer student, when Mikasa suddenly remembered her strange dream this morning. Most dreams she forgot as soon as she woke up, but some dreams seemed to be filled with something strange – something surreal, almost magical, that entice her to keep thinking about it. This dream was something like that. As soon as she started thinking about it, she was immersed immediately, and she forgot all other thoughts.

"I wasn't – I wasn't listening," said Mikasa apologetically, trying to brush off the worries from her friend's face. "What is it?"

"You've been staring at your croquette for three minutes without eating it," Nanako pointed to Mikasa's lunch box, reminding her of what she was doing before she was lost in her thoughts. The blue box was lying open in front of her, the food inside it barely eaten. Mikasa sighed. "I'm not hungry," she said, and it was true. For some reason, she really didn't feel like eating today. Nanako continued to stare at her – looking unconvinced.

"You're on PMS?"

"No, it's just finished."

"Stressed?"

"Not quite."

"Boy problem, maybe?"

"_No_, I'm just not hungry."

Mikasa put down her chopsticks and started to pack her lunch box. Her mom's not going to be happy she didn't finish lunch, and to tell the truth neither was she, as well. She hated wasting food, especially with her mom frequently lecturing her about how there were starving children on the other parts of the world – and how they were blessed to be able to eat every day.

"Oh yeah, Mikasa," said Nanako again, pressing her chopsticks to her lips and biting the end of them slightly as she watched Mikasa pack her things. "I heard Jean asked you out again the other day."

Mikasa's fingers slipped and her chopsticks cluttered to the surface of her wooden table. _This school sure had a fast information network_, she thought irritably.

"Not exactly, he only asked if I wanted to go watch a movie this Saturday," said Mikasa, trying to keep a cool face as she collected her pair of chopsticks and carefully wrapped them.

"Did you give him an answer?" asked Nanako. Mikasa continued to sort her things inside the lunch box and didn't utter a word, a gesture that Nanako understood immediately. She didn't answer Jean.

"He's had a thing for you ever since our first year," Nanako continued. "Don't you think you're being too harsh on him, Mikasa?"

"It's not that… I'm just not interested in that kind of thing," Mikasa replied, wrapping her lunch box and putting them inside her drawer.

"You're not interested in boys?"

"Not for now."

"Don't tell me, you're interested in girls?" Nanako shrieked and Mikasa had just opened her mouth to answer her best friend's far-fetched speculation, when she heard a voice calling out her name.

She turned to see her caller, and saw a guy with slightly messy light-brown hair, fair skin, and light-colored eyes standing outside her classroom, looking at her through the open glass window.

_Speak of the devil._

"Excuse me for a while," said Mikasa, rising up from her seat and walking out of her classroom to greet the boy – the very same boy that she and Nanako was just talking about – Jean Kirstein. "Hi," he said nervously when Mikasa approached him. She replied with a slight nod. "So uhm… Ackerman, about the other day…"

"I'm… I'm afraid I can't make it," she said, and Jean's face fell. "Oh," he said grimly. "Right, sorry. Uhm…"

"I need to… go to the library on Saturday," said Mikasa, trying to make up a believable excuse, but even by the second she made it she realized how lame it sounded. "Maybe… Jean, you want to go with me?"

Even she couldn't be more surprised by her own words. Jean's eyes grew wide at her unexpected invitation, and she bit her lips, unable to believe herself. She should have flat-out turned him down. But instead she asked him to go with her to the library, which was just as good as asking him out on a date. What the hell was she doing?

If this wasn't what they called 'giving a false hope' then she didn't know what was.

"But that place is boring," she said quickly, half hoping that Jean would turn down her invitation. "If-if you don't want to go, then…"

"No, I'd like to go," he said, and Mikasa's heart sink. It's too late to back off now. "So… I'll see you on Saturday?"

She nodded, finding herself deprived of words to reply. Drifting back to her seat, she found Nanako staring at her with a pair of wide, puzzled eyes.

"What was _that_, Mikasa?"

Mikasa shook her head. She didn't understand it either.

* * *

_**-The Witch and The Harlot-**_

The afternoon bell rang, and Mr. Levi – the Math teacher and their homeroom teacher, quickly wrapped up his lessons for today.

"That's it for today about Trigonometry. Toda and Sato, you are on classroom cleaning duty – make sure the class is clean tomorrow, or else I'll double your shift next week. Ackerman, I need you to submit the attendance list on my desk straight after this."

"Yes sir," said Mikasa, and swiftly packed her stuff inside her school bag. "See you tomorrow," said Nanako, waving lazily as Mikasa briskly made her way out of the classroom. Mikasa nodded, returning her friend's greeting. As she hurriedly walk to the teacher's room, she sent a sideway glance toward the new transfer student's chair - second row from the back of the classroom. She hadn't seen the transfer boy all day long. His chair was empty – it had been unoccupied since lunch. Seemed like Eren Yeager had decided to skip class and go off somewhere on his first day in the new school. She had to admit, it was a pretty effective way to show the teachers and the entire class a piece of his mind.

* * *

_Sometimes, life had its ways to put you through the most painful, uncomfortable, and crushing situations._

_Maybe it was about the moments – simply put – or about time, or conversations – the words spoken from one individual to another that could mark and form the bonds between people._

_There are, however, some times and situations that Mikasa wished she never put herself in._

_And there are some conversations that she wished she had never heard at all._

* * *

Mikasa pulled the metal lever and the sound of gurgling water filled in the cramped toilet cubicle. After handing the attendance list to Mr. Levi and forced to explain why she had to miss an entire half a day of school (while enduring his glare all the while), she had to stop and make a detour to the restroom. She was about to open the cubicle door, when suddenly she heard the familiar chirping voice – high-pitched, fast-paced, the voice of a certain brown-haired girl that happened to be her best friend since middle school.

Nanako.

And surprisingly, she heard her best friend saying her name.

"That _Mikasa_," she said with such malicious tone that Mikasa had to wince. She had never heard her name being spoken like that. "She is such a _bitch_."

"What happened this time?" said a girl voice that Mikasa didn't recognize.

"All of this time she has been pretty much casting Jean off her sight – you know how he has a long-time crush on her, and how she ignores him all the while – God knows why, that _snob_ probably thinks she's better than all the creatures in the planet!" Nanako slammed her bag angrily to the surface of the washbasin, as she continued to speak furiously. "And now… now she suddenly asked him to go on a date with her! _That freaking slut_! After all the time I've spent to at least get Jean to at look at me, she just _had_ to jump in!"

"What? Are you serious?" her friend shrieked, a little bit too excited and too loud to be considered normal. "Wow… sucks. Must be tough for you. We all know Jean only wants Mikasa."

"Shut it, Emi!" replied Nanako fiercely to her friend. Mikasa now realized who she was. Akiyama Emi from Class 2-3.

"That _bitch_, just what does she want? If she thinks she can walk in and steal away Jean just when he started to warm up to me…," Nanako's hateful voice continued to chatter.

"But Mikasa doesn't know you're into Jean, does she, Nanako?" Emi cut Nanako before she was finished. Inside the cubicle, Mikasa suddenly felt very, very sick. She wanted to throw up all her lunch. Nanako, crushing over Jean? She didn't realize it. She didn't even think that Nanako would feel that way about him – not until now.

"She's too thick to even know it, that's why!" came Nanako's cruel words. Mikasa raised her palms to block her ears so that she didn't have to hear them any longer – but such strong words of hatred bear the deadliest poison, and though she tried to close it off, they still come pouring in.

"That girl probably thinks she's the only creature in the planet to ever deserve attention – that whore – if she had even realized for just a bit how much I hated her – I wouldn't have to pretend we're best friends now." Mikasa felt as though she had been slapped.

"Haha! You're pretty mean then for someone she considers a best friend, aren't you, Nanako?" her friend replied, laughing cheerily at Nanako's malicious words.

"Oh don't worry – I play my part well. I listen every time she has problems and takes care of her, you see. She is glad to have me," Nanako clapped her makeup case closed after carefully applying lipstick on her plain lips. "And being with her _does_ give me benefit – at least my grades are getting higher."

"You're such a _witch_, Nanako."

"Well… I'm not even started."

Nanako dragged her bag off the washbasin and soon after Mikasa heard the sound of footsteps slowly fading away – telling her that both of the girls had gone out of the restroom. For a while, she just stared emptily at the dark grey cubicle wall. It was difficult for her to breathe. She could hardly – if ever – believe it. Was that really Nanako? Lovely, faithful Nanako, to whom she had shared stories, moments, conversations – with whom she had had sleepovers together, crammed when it was the time for exams, and gone to watch movies or stroll the malls on weekends?

Was that really Nanako, the girl who didn't like too much sugar in her tea, yet could eat almost a whole cake by herself? The plain but kind-hearted girl who always ordered extra caramel and whipped cream on her Frappuccino, even though Mikasa had already warned her about her diabetical tendencies?

How could that girl be the same girl that just spit out all the mean, horrible things about her? She felt as though a different person had taken over Nanako's body, and spoken with Nanako's voice.

Or maybe, she realized as she continued to stare emptily, it wasn't a different person at all. It was Nanako, the same person she had known for four and a half years – only now, she had to see her a little better.

Her body began to tremble. Sometimes, life had its ways to put you through the most horrendous things.

And this time, she wished she had never trusted anyone at all.

She clapped her hands to her mouth and silently, her tears began to pour out.

* * *

_**-A Wish that is not Granted-**_

She didn't remember how she got here.

When she realized, she was already standing here – on the open-air rooftop of the school. It was a nice place. The afternoon wind blew lightly on her face – playing with her shoulder-length black hair. She inhaled deeply. It was a little bit chilly without her sweater, but Mikasa liked it. The cold afternoon air helped her blew off some steam. On the far west, the sun had begun to climb down – bursting its last rays of orange and red colors, distantly through the horizon. She had just had her world crushed under her best friend's – or rather her ex best friend's feet – yet the sun seemed to be completely fine with it. The world still revolved normally, there was nothing different in it – except the pain in her chest that made her wish she could rip it off.

She leaned herself to the stone wall. It felt cold – hard, but at least it was able to support her so that she wouldn't fall straight down the bottomless dark pit that seemed to be threatening to swallow her whole at any moments. Now that she had recovered from her initial shock, this whole situation seemed to be so pitiable, laughable, even. To think that she had spent four years, trusting the wrong person, and never even picking up signs of how wrong their relationship had been. Well, not like it was completely Nanako's fault, was it? She was also to blame. If she had been a better friend, she wouldn't have pretended that everything was alright, while in fact she was just too afraid to take off her mask and let Nanako see her.

The _real_ her – not the golden girl Mikasa Ackerman – top student, class president, and the teacher's favorite.

The lonely, afraid, bitter, but _real_ – her.

It seemed like the more she tried to put up a tough face, the stronger life tried to push her down. She wanted to laugh at herself and the irony that life had put her in, but at the same time, she didn't have the energy anymore to do it.

She only wanted to lie there, and close her eyes, for as long as possible.

But even that wish was not granted, for she soon heard a voice from the back of her head, piercing through the depth of her mind and forcing her to open her eyes.

"That is my place."

Mikasa turned to gaze into a pair of emerald green eyes that stared to her. The owner – a dark-haired boy with average height, lean build, and somewhat dark skin, stared back at her. Deep creases decorated his brows as he watched her through narrowed eyes, clearly none too pleased at her sudden invasion on his privacy.

"I-I'm sorry," she said, getting up immediately. "I thought… no one is sitting here…"

"Well I am, so get off." His words were cold, short and mean. He walked past her as though she was a ghost before leaning against the wall, and reaching into his pocket to pull out a pack of cigarette. He lighted one cigarette and blew a long, heavy puff of smoke. Then it was as though he suddenly remembered he wasn't alone in the vicinity, and his eyes drifted back to her.

"What are you still doing here?" he said, not as much with wonder as was with annoyance, and she recoiled, startled at his harsh tone.

"I…," she started, not quite sure what to say. What should she say? She only wanted to seek solace here, away from the noises, the wandering eyes, the people who only wanted to know but didn't want to help – and to make prejudices when they know they could.

"I just… wanted to rest." It wasn't a complete lie. In this moment, she wasn't sure if she could stand to be around them. Solitude was what she needed, away from people, until she could hear the faint sound of her heart beating. A place where she could be herself, for just a moment, until she could gather her strength and face them again – with the mask that she always wore.

He laughed, none too pleasantly at her answer. "Top student in class, wanted to rest? What do you even need rest for? I thought you're busy chasing up your grades." He drew another long breath from his cig, and puffed the smoke in the cold afternoon air, when her voice answered, colder and sharper than usual.

"You know nothing."

* * *

**_-The Girl with the Mask, and the Boy Who Trespassed-_**

_One day, in a not-so-distant future, they would both stop and look back, with smile on their faces as they were looking at their past selves, to try and figure out the beginning of it all. When did their feelings started to deepen, when did they start caring about one another?_

_And just when, did one of them started becoming a significant part of the other?_

_It might be when he realized that Mikasa, despite being an 'elite' student and the teacher's favorite, wasn't such a snob like what he used to think._

_Or when she started thinking that Eren, when he wasn't being his mean or cocky self, could actually be a nice friend, who taught her a lot of important things about life, that she had so long chosen to forget._

_It might be when he wrapped his scarf around her, a material she still treasured at this very moment. Or when they both shared a kiss for the first time._

_However else it might have started, they both knew that it definitely did not start today – on a cold Monday afternoon of September 28th. In fact, no other first meetings could have gone more terribly wrong._

* * *

"You know nothing."

He had to be even thicker than a brick to miss the suddenly bitter, sharper note on her tone. For a split second, it caught him off-guard. His cigarette stopped on the way to his lips as he turned to look at the girl in front of him, now giving her his full, undivided attention.

He raised an eyebrow, and with a corner of his lips pulled up to form a rather taunting grin, he cocked his head a little to the side, and replied to her words.

"Maybe," he said. "So, what don't I know about the lady? Care to teach me?"

"It's not your business," said Mikasa with an air of clear disdain, which made him halt even further. She eyed the boy, from the cigarette on his hand, his messy uniform which had probably never been ironed, and his dark brown hair which was not in a better state than his outfit. This boy clearly needed some heavy grooming. And she had never seen someone with such a heavy air of delinquent. Every fiber of his being seemed to have screamed 'rebel'. Clearly, he didn't belong in this school – she had never seen him before.

"Are you the transfer student – Eren… Eren Yeager?" she asked, trying to memorize the name.

"Yep. That's me," the boy replied, puffing on his cigarette a little bit off-mindedly. "So, what business you have with me, Ackerman…?"

Mikasa blinked. She was just about to ask how the transfer student even knew her name, but Eren merely laughed at her confusion. "I have my ways," he said. "Not like it's hard to find out about you."

"Are you a stalker?" she asked before she could help it then bit her lips, afraid if her spontaneous words would offend him.

"Not quite, I'm way above that," he grinned, blowing another round of long, white smoke from between his lips. "So, you're the class president, right? Aren't you going to report me for smoking?"

"I should at least confiscate your cigs – but I'm in no mood for it, so no."

"Sweet, thanks." He replied, his grin becoming wider still. By then his cigarette had made its way to his lips and he drew another long drag from it. "Oh – sorry," he said, realizing that he had been absent-minded for a while. He pulled the cigarette pack and held it in front of Mikasa who was still standing at an arm's length distance from him. "You smoke?"

For a while Mikasa just stood blinking at the question. She stared at the cigarette pack, and to the green-eyed boy who was still holding the pack in front of her, its lids open. And then, realizing what he wanted her to do, she put her palms on the packet and pushed it away. "Sorry. I don't…"

"Is that so? Too bad," he said, withdrawing the pack to his pocket once more. "Why not, though?" Another long blow of smoke from his cig before Mikasa answered. "One, because I'm the class president, and two, because it is _illegal_, I am underage." He grinned at the emphasis she put on the word 'illegal'. "Doesn't mean you can't do it."

"My family don't like it," came her other answer, and once again his cigarette paused on the way to his lips upon hearing her words.

"I see," he said. It was very subtle, but Mikasa was too sensitive to miss the suddenly harsh tone in his voice. And from the way he avoided looking at her – clearly she had said something to upset him, though she didn't know what.

She didn't want to find out either.

"So… you just… let your family decide whether or not you can do things?" he spoke again, trying to sound carefree but failed, as his words came out sharper than what he'd intended. Acting had never been something he was proud of – and to some kind of people he really didn't feel like hiding his dislike at all. Mikasa furrowed her brows at his sudden passive-aggressive tone. She had no clue at his sudden change of behavior, and she sure didn't feel like being a target of someone's angst, especially not when she herself was in a foul mood. Unsure of his point and where this conversation was going, she only tilted her head a little to the side, still not saying a thing – and waited for his next words.

When Eren looked back at this, months and months after, he couldn't help but regret and wish that he wasn't such a jerk at their first meeting.

But he _was_ a jerk – there was no other way to put it. He wasn't in his best mood – he wasn't happy to be expelled (or, in a more subtle term, asked to drop out and move to another school before the school is forced to take countermeasures on his case). He was angry at the world, the teacher, the school, and all the people around him. He tried to shake it off by smoking – it killed the pain, but only for a while, and it wasn't enough. He wanted to take it out on someone. He had tried to repress his anger for so long, and it didn't work. He wanted someone to feel the same pain as he did. And at that time, Mikasa was the only one in his vicinity.

He had nothing personal against her, but she had run into him at a very wrong time, very wrong time indeed.

So it happened that the first encounter, the first conversation between a boy and a girl who will come to love one another in the future, was very far-off from what you would call 'a fated encounter'.

"Do you ever decide anything for yourself at all – or you just blindly follow everything that people tell you?" For some reason, her silence provoked him even further. He was getting angrier, yet she seemed unfazed despite his fit of rage. Her calm face was unchanging, like the surface of a deep pond – he couldn't tell what's in her mind. He couldn't even tell if she had emotions at all.

Probably she didn't, he realized. Probably she was just one of the typical _good girls_, the lifeless marionette dolls living in their glass palace, who looked at everything outside of her walls through her windows of stained-glass. They were always safely kept inside, not knowing anything except their own flat, white-bread world. Sometimes, you can see life in them, but only when their strings are being pulled. And yet, those are not their lives – those are the lives of their puppeteer. They are the _good girls_ - the beautiful, but lifeless containers of human souls. They never decided anything for themselves, never standing up for their cause. They were type of people he really, really hate.

And for a brief moment there, when she talked back to him in that bitter tone, he had started to think that he was wrong about her. He had even begun to think that he might like her.

But now, his dislike for her grew even further, and before he realized it, he had spoken in a higher tone. He leaned himself forward, toward that girl, who drew a few steps back, startled at his sudden aggressive move.

"So I guess a good girl like you only does what her _family_ likes her to do, yeah?" he said to her rather mockingly.

Mikasa's didn't say anything to counter the argument. He dropped the cigarette butt on the floor and crushed it under his feet, taking a few steps again toward her, this time cornering her against the wall.

"Back off, Yeager," she said with a warning tone. She didn't understand him at all. First he was a jerk. Then he turned into a fine, nice conversing partner albeit still being a little cocky. But now, he was back to his harsh, mean self. It wasn't just his voice and the way he spoke, which was getting increasingly hostile by the second, but rather his eyes – the way they flared as he stared at her with a sour expression – that told her she would better not involve herself with this boy.

"Some good girl you are, aren't you, Ackerman? You have the best grades, the teachers all love you. You are surrounded by friends, and your parents are proud of you." She sent him a disdainful look at his words – but he ignored the warning and went on, wanting to let the pressing anger off his chest.

"You want everyone to _love_ you, don't you, Ackerman? You're playing it nice at being the good girl. You laugh when you were told to laugh, shed tears when it was time for you to show your sympathy, yet you are completely fake. Have you _ever_ felt any kinds of emotions at all, Ackerman?"

"_Yeager_."

It was clear what she had meant from the way she said his name. _Stop it. Stop right there. I'm in an awful mood, I've had a bad day, I can't tolerate your bullshit. I know you're angry for some reason but for God's sake don't take it out on me._

He had touched some kind of a sore spot – he knew it. He could see it from the expression on her face. And for a moment, it actually gave him a kind of bizarre, twisted pleasure to see emotions replacing her never-ending stone cold expression.

_So she wasn't a completely devoid, fake, lifeless doll after all._

"Aren't you daddy's good girl, Ackerman? Your daddy must be _very_ _happy_ to have a daughter like you," he said in a mock voice. He wasn't proud of it, he really wasn't. But at that time he only wanted to upset that girl for just a moment longer, for no other reason except to be mean and blow off his anger.

However, he happened to choose a very wrong thing to say to the wrong person, in a very wrong time.

Mikasa's face grew very, very pale at his words. Her lips were pursed so thin that they were almost invisible. If he had been just a little bit more considerate, he would have picked the signs to stop. He was taking a big risk, trespassing on a major boundary that should not be touched. But he was too oblivious to pay attention to such details. He didn't care about her, he didn't care about her feelings. He only wanted to press on.

"Do you know what they call a girl whose only job is to make others happy?"

"Stop it."

But he did not stop – instead he continued, loudly, "A slut."

That was the last straw that broke her patience. She raised her free arm, and a split second later, the surface of her palm had met the skin of his cheek as she smacked him flat across his face.

"You are a complete _jerk_, Yeager," she said, her voice trembled as she struggled to keep her emotions under control. It gave her a sense of satisfaction, to see his surprised face as he rubbed his cheek in obvious discomfort, not returning her gaze to him. She wasn't sorry at all. "You have such a big mouth for someone who knows so little."

Shoving past him, she opened the door to the stairway and began to climb down, not turning to see if Eren would bother to call her and apologize. Between Ayako's pregnancy issues, Nanako's hurtful stab-in-the-back, and the new transfer student's horrible attitudes toward her – this had not been a good day at all. Tired and frustrated, she headed home – walking as fast as both of her legs could bring her.

* * *

**Wow, this is one long chapter - and Eren is really jerky. But brace yourselves for he is going to be... worse. Lol. Don't worry, he's going to be sweet later!**

**What do you think of this chapter? Tell me your thoughts! :)**

**Cookies and xoxo for all who reviews.**

**Thank you so much!**


	4. The Wheel of Fate

**A/N: Finally! I'm VERY sorry for the delay, but work had been busy lately, so it was kind of hard for me to update the chapter. I had to overcome quite a bit of writer's block too. There are many things I'm not sure of in this chapter, since many of the original SNK characters made their first appearance here, I don't know how well I've been able to write them. I just hope you don't find them OOC, or poorly written :( I wish I could've made the plots/conflicts meatier as well. **

**I'm really nervous about this chapter, so _please _review! I'm seriously begging. Please.**

**PS: I've decided to change the town name from Inazuma to Shiganshina. Gives you more of SNK feels.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Last chapter: Jean had a deep crush on Mikasa, but the girl had turned him down for so many times before. Suddenly, out of confusion and not wanting to be rude to him, she invited him for a library date on the coming Saturday. Things got complicated because Nanako, Mikasa's 'best friend' actually had hidden her long-time crush on Jean. It turned out that she deeply hated Mikasa for suddenly seeming to reciprocate Jean's feelings after ignoring him all the while, causing Nanako's chance of actually getting the boy to thin out. Mikasa found out about Nanako's hurtful back-stab when she accidentally overheard Nanako talking ill about her in the girl's restroom. Wanting to cool her head off, Mikasa sought for solitary in the school's rooftop, where she ran into the rumored transfer student, Eren. Their meeting didn't go well, and she ended up slapping him for his hurtful words, before quickly heading home and leaving him alone._

* * *

**_-Three days before-_**

**_(September 25__th__, 9.00 AM)_**

It was the morning of Friday, September 25th. A grey, cold Friday morning, and though it was a morning to remember, it was not a particularly good morning for Eren Yeager. He was in a bad situation, having done something nearly unforgivable. He had committed grave violations of school rules and was now waiting to be presented in front of the school board to receive his punishment.

The headmaster's secretary had whisked him here as soon as he arrived at school in the morning. She had told him to settle himself in the waiting room, while the rest of the board gathered themselves in the meeting room and prepared for his (so-called) disciplinary trial. He had given her a curt nod, not listening to even half of what she had said, and chosen the nearest plush chair to sit down on while she opened the heavy wooden door and left him alone in the room. Having nothing else to do, he leaned himself as comfortably on the chair and let his eyes wander around, examining every little details he saw.

He had been into various troubles before, most of them he was able to get away without any of the school staves knowing. Some of the more serious trouble he got into was settled by the headmaster himself, so this was his first time seeing the school board's room. Rumor had it, that only two kinds of students would ever see this room. First was if you had been an honor student, with top-notch marks and excellent skills, then you will most likely be called here to be awarded. Second was if you had been at the other end of the spectrum, a heavy delinquent with no hopes whatsoever of fixing, then you will be summoned for immediate expulsion, and clearly, Eren belonged to the latter category.

For such a grandiose background tale, this room certainly wasn't a disappointing one at any sort. It wasn't a bad room, in fact, it was a very handsome chamber – a perfect cubicle of 5x5x3 on dimensions, coated in brilliant white and decorated with nice-looking, classy furniture. From the nicely carpeted floor, the round table and the vase of flowers on top of it, to the glass window and the aquarium beside it – which was filled with a scary, angry-looking fish that he didn't even want to bother finding out the name – everything in this room was… fancy.

Yet, to him it was none than a very cold, heartless room. The clean-cut, sharp edges on each corner of the room, the radiant light reflected by the plain white wall, and how this room was furnished so thoroughly, so flawlessly, just depicted a sense of perfection… of order.

And he hated anything that was made for perfection.

He heaved a deep sigh and glanced at the clock. Fifteen minutes past nine. His trial was supposed to start at nine-thirty, still fifteen minutes to go. Reflexively, he reached for his pocket, but cursed inwardly a second later as he realized he didn't bring his cigarette with him today. He threw himself back and crossed his legs, feeling even more uncomfortable by the second. How he wished he could have a smoke, or two. At least, it would help to calm him down.

_But why?_ his eyes scrutinized the grey rug below his feet, and he slowly heard himself thinking. _Why do I need a smoke that badly? It's not like I'm afraid, is it?_

No, he wasn't. At least, he didn't think that he was afraid. Even though he knew, in a short while he would have to present himself in front the boards, the people with the highest authority in the whole school. They would determine whether or not he's guilty of breaking school rules, and then they would pass him his judgment. He didn't care though. He already knew what his punishment was going to be. For such a heavy violation as his, there was no way that his punishment will be any less than immediate expulsion. But for some reason, he wasn't afraid. It was scary to admit that he was even actually feeling satisfied of himself.

Satisfied because he got kicked out of school, for such a horrendous reason. It was disgusting to know that he wasn't feeling guilty, or regret for what he did in the least bit. All he could feel now was a twisted sense of victory, a bizarre accomplishment of having overthrown the school rules. Yes, he would be kicked out of school. So what? He didn't care if he could never go to school again (which was very probable because come on, who _would_ accept such troublesome student in their school?). At least, he could show them that they couldn't rule over him, that he would not be defined by their authorities.

Because rather than working hard to be recognized as a good student, a good member of society, or other nonsense that they had constantly spouted in front of his face – he was his own person, with his own sense of freedom. And he would not set fire to himself to keep them warm.

There was a sound of the door being opened, and he heard his name being said.

"Eren Yeager," he turned to see the headmaster's secretary standing on the open door, looking straight at him. One hand was holding a plastic folder filled with bundles of white papers, and the other hand was on the door handle. "The board is ready for your trial. Come in."

He got up from the seat with a full realization that this was going to be his last moment in this school, and walked into the board room. He could hear the heavy wooden door closed behind him after, and soon the heavy silence inside the room felt heavily suffocating for him. He stood still, facing the row of half-oval desk, filled with seven board members. Two of them were the headmaster and the vice headmaster. On the far right, he also noticed the head of Parent-Teacher Association, but the rest of the board were unfamiliar to him.

"Eren Yeager," said a bespectacled man with thick, long beard who sat in the middle of the oval desk. "You have been summoned here before the board for breaking multiple school rules. School rule number seventy-five, which states as follows…," but his voice soon turned into a distant sound, as Eren's attention was diverted by the golden plate in front of that man. That fancy-looking gold plate was bearing a black carving that read 'Dallis Zacklay', Eren had every reason to believe that it was his name. Below his name, with smaller fonts, there was a writing that read 'Head of Board of Committee' and Eren felt himself smirk, inside. So basically he was the biggest out of the biggest fishes in the pond now. With a wooden hammer on his left hand, and a bundle of papers on his right hand, in this room he was practically a God, ready to pass down his judgment.

"…. and for doing that without permission, which result in heavy violation of the school rules. Are you aware…?" Dallis paused, and Eren blinked a few times before realizing that he was, of course, being addressed. Quickly he muttered his answer. "Yes, Sir. I am aware."

"Do you object to any of those things…?"

_Did he object?_ As if it would make any difference. "No, Sir."

"Do you, and will you solemnly swear here before the board to tell the truth, that you have done the aforementioned violation of school rules, while being on a sober state and out of your own will, free of coercion from any other person or persons?"

He sighed. "Yes, Sir. I did those things on my own free will, out of coercion."

"Then I assume, that you are also aware of the consequences of your actions."

He brought his eyes up to look at Dallis straight, and spoke, very slowly, not a tone of hesitation in his voice.

"Yes, sir."

_Bring it on. If I have to be expelled right here before the board, then bring it on._

"Very good, this will do nicely to keep things short then," said Dallis, putting the paperwork on his right hand and cleared his throat before speaking loudly. "Those of you in favor of keeping him at school?" he asked, addressing his question to the whole board members, and with a bitter smile inside, Eren saw that no hands came up. Of course. Of course he had known that this would happen.

"And those in favor of immediate expulsion?" All the seven hands immediately shot up. With a slight nod, Dallis signaled for the other board members to put their hands down. "It is decided. By unanimous vote of the board members, Eren Yeager is now no longer a student of Shiganshina East High School. He may remain at school until the school period this day is over, after which, he will no longer be associated as part of our academic faculty."

Eren waited for Dallis to swing down his hammer and knock three times to seal his judgment, but instead, the board chairman continued loudly, "Afterwards, Eren Yeager will be a member of Shiganshina North High School academic faculty. His enrollment in the said school has been settled, and he shall begin attending the school at Monday, September 28th. That is all."

His hammer was on the way to knocking the case closed, but a startled Eren cut him loudly, "Wait, what?" in his confusion, he forgot all about talking politely. "I'm going to be attending North High School? How come?"

"We have got specific request from their end to move you to their department," said Dallis, his eyes indicated disdain at having been cut so impolitely by Eren. "You will move to that high school, starting on Monday."

"But… but that school is…," Eren tried to explain his meaning, but soon was a loss for words. _This is crazy!_ His thought seemed to have jumbled altogether into his brain. "That school is the biggest _snob_ high school in this town! Why would they accept someone like me?" It didn't make sense at all for such a prestigious institute to accept a delinquent who was expelled from his previous school. This must be some kind of sick joke.

"We do not discuss that with you," replied Dallis curtly, "You are now no longer associated with our academic faculty, and instead are a member of North High School. Our judgment is final."

With that, he swung down his hammer and knocked three times, as loudly as he could.

"Case is closed. You may leave now."

* * *

**_-A Friend and A Companion-_**

The public park was always his favorite spot, firstly because there was no restriction to smoke, and secondly, because it was such a convenient hiding place. Behind the bushes and the thick trees, no one would be able to see him, let alone find him.

He had taken off from school straight after his trial was over, not bothering to stay even for a second longer. Even though the board had given him permission to stay within school grounds until the end of day, he had no will whatsoever to remain there after he had been so clearly kicked out. Lying on the grass and smoking on what must have been at least his third cigarette, he folded one arm behind his head and silently watched the milky clouds gathered on the orange afternoon sky. It was cloudy that afternoon, but the weather was strangely warm enough for the end of autumn. The wind was chilly sometimes, but most of the time it was just the soft, light breeze that slightly tickled his face.

He exhaled, letting out a puff of white smoke that soon disappeared into the cold afternoon air. He had done it. He had shown them that he couldn't be defined by their rules. He was now free – to write his own rules, to do the things he was never allowed to do. He should have been happy about it.

So then… why? Why was he so… _pissed_ at the whole ordeal? Why – just for a second there when he stood in front of the board as they decided on his punishment, had he let that sliver of hope slip inside his heart, that he wouldn't be expelled – that somehow he would be able to stay?

It was a stupid hope, of course. And it made him even more frustrated at himself. Because the fact that it was even there clearly spoke about one thing: he might not have been so care-free about this whole matter, after all. Despite everything that he had said and thought – of how he didn't mind and wasn't even afraid of getting kicked out of school – the truth was he knew that he _was_ a little bit scared. He was scared to face the unknown, all by himself. He _did_ want to stay here – with the friends that he had made, the school ground he had been so familiar with – there was a part of him that didn't want to leave them behind. But now he was no longer part of them, he was a cast-off, an outsider. And it was a little lonely being estranged from his own circle of friends.

_What the hell_, he mentally punched himself. He wished he could stop bitching about the whole thing already. It was his own decision, goddamnit. It was his own action that that had brought him here. It didn't make sense to feel all accomplished and seconds later getting pissed about what he did.

"Found you," a voice suddenly interrupted his train of thought, and Eren immediately turned. He sighed when he recognized the owner. A petite slim girl with sharp blue eyes, long flaxen hair that was tied up on the back of her head, and a skin so pale it was as though he could see what's right underneath. She wasn't exactly the person he wanted to meet at the moment, but he pulled himself up and forced a grin to her.

"Hey Annie," he said lightly to the girl – Annie Leonhart, "You were looking for me? How sweet."

"Screw you," she replied right away, ducking underneath the bushes and tree branches to get nearer to him. It was kind of funny to hear her swear – with her ever-cold and emotionless demeanors. She pulled out a dry leaf that stuck to her hair and lightly dusted her skirt before joining him to sit on the grass.

"I heard… you got expelled," her statement hit him with the speed of a bullet train, and for a while Eren he could say nothing – merely staring at her, startled. _Did she find out about that already? _He thought the board would at least keep it confidential until – well, until they needed to, which they probably never would. But news sure travelled fast around here.

"Yeah," he said finally, diverting his gaze to the ground below so that she could not see his bitterness, "Anyway, they couldn't possibly keep me after what happened with Kurosawa, right?"

"So it's true then… what happened with Kurosawa?" she asked with a plain, emotionless voice. Her question this time was certainly no better than the last one. He sighed.

"You were there too. You saw me," he replied, reaching to his cigarette pack to pull out his fourth one. "So yeah, it's true." He gave her a light shrug, and they were silent for a long while. Eren continued to smoke, while Annie remained impassive, not saying a word all the while he finished his cigarette. When he finally disposed of cigarette butt, she spoke again.

"So you're really going away." Her tone was cold as always, but for a bit, he could sense compassion there in her voice. Pure, unadulterated compassion that sometimes surfaced when she was talking to him. Somehow, it eased his feelings a little bit. It was nice to know that there was someone who thought of him in such a way. "This place will be quiet without you," she continued, and he laughed.

"I'll only go to a school a few stations away, Ann. I didn't even go out of town." Annie only cocked her head a little as a response and said nothing further. He took her lack of response as a sign to go on. "We can still… see each other. If you want to," he added quickly. "Which, considering how much of a total wreck I am, you'd probably want to uhh… 'cut all ties' with me instead."

"Maybe," said Annie without as much as slight tone change, playing with the end of her oversized pink cardigan, "You're a total wreck. But I won't do that."

He smirked. "Thanks, I guess," he said. He felt his sense of loneliness was beginning to wilt away. He had last seen Annie only two days ago, right after he had committed his horrendous deeds. Back then, her eyes were filled with bitter disappointment, and he was too busy with his own thoughts that he didn't realize how much he had hurt her. But from the way she talked to him now – it couldn't have been clearer that she had forgiven him. After all that had happened, she still considered him as a friend. And he would be even lower than the lowest bastard if he didn't appreciate it.

"Annie," he paused for a while. "I'm… sorry."

Her sharp blue eyes drifted to him, questioning, "For what?"

"For everything. I know you're not happy about me being expelled… in this way."

"It's your own choice," said Annie, "You don't owe me an apology. You're old enough to know your own things."

"You're right," he said, smiling. Annie didn't say anything further and neither did he. They merely sat there, in total silence once again, as the last rays of afternoon sun washed upon them – bringing the faint traces of autumn warmth on their skin. Sometimes, it was comfortable being in each other's companion without saying anything. In his hectic life that seemed to have a hobby of constantly turning him upside-down, he really liked to take a little pause to breathe. And this time was a time for that. Somehow, he was glad that Annie seemed to know what he wanted at this moment – just peace and quietness, and someone to sit by his side. But then again… she always seemed to be able to understand him. Even now, when she was so clearly upset by his decision – she didn't complain. She still sat beside him, as a companion – a friend, that he very much needed.

"Don't you have to go home soon…?" he finally broke the silence by asking her.

"I can stay," he heard her reply with her usual cold voice, "I still… want to be here," she continued, and he grinned.

"I get it," he said, somewhat smugly, "You miss me, don't you? Don't worry, Ann – though it's my last day here, I'll be here as long as you want. I know you can't live a day without me," he teased her, and she lightly slapped his arm.

"Shut _up,_" she said. And for the first time in what had been such a bitter day, it finally cracked him up laughing.

* * *

**_-Present Day-_**

**_(Monday, September 28__th__)_**

"So _you_ are Eren Yeager."

His math and homeroom teacher, a man called Levi, glanced upward at him from the pile of papers in his folder. Eren blinked a few times and returned the stare of the pair of steel-grey eyes before answering.

"Yeah, I'm Eren," he said, and the man in front of him immediately frowned. He already looked pissed before, but now he looked even worse. "Mind your manners, kid," he said, narrowing his eyes dangerously, "Shit, I can't believe we have to be stuck with a troublemaker like you when we already have so many things to deal with. What the hell were they thinking?" Levi didn't address that question to Eren, so he made no attempt to answer it. Though of course, if he had been addressed with the question, he certainly would have answered. He would even be more than happy to drop out and save the school staves some trouble because seriously, he was even among the worst in his previous, mediocre high school – what made them think that he'd any better here in this elite school?

Either the board members had all been drinking the night before and were high when they made that decision, or they had been inflicted with some kind of disease that temporarily put them out of their minds, it was hard to tell.

None of the theories made sense of course, but neither did his move here bring any sense. Getting expelled, he could understand. Being moved here _after_ he was expelled? Bloody hell. He'd sooner feel like hanging himself rather than compelling with the rules here.

The warning bell rang, five minutes before the start of class. Levi let out an irritated sigh and began to collect his things from the desk – the folder with Eren's name on it, his math books, attendance list, a pen, and a handkerchief – which he so carefully folded and slipped inside his coat pocket. He stood up, signaling for Eren to follow him, which he obeyed.

"By some kind of the worst luck, you are entrusted to me as your homeroom teacher. So watch out, kid. I don't care what you did in your last school to get you expelled, but you certainly won't be able to do them here – in front of my face," he said.

_Yeah right, like you would be able to stop me, _Eren scoffed behind his back.

"If you decided to do them anyway," Levi abruptly stopped and turned to face him, causing Eren to quickly change his expression into (what he hoped as) a neutral and normal expression. "You _will_ suffer the consequences. Consider this a fair warning."

Eren slightly halted. He usually was very saucy, even to the teachers and headmaster of his previous school, he never felt any need to hold back his tongue. But somehow, in front of this man and his pair of cold grey eyes that seemed to pierce to the back of his skull, he immediately restrained his manners.

"Yes, Sir," he answered, a little bit surprised at himself, and the man nodded curtly as a response. "Good. And this will be your class from now on." He opened the sliding door to classroom 2-1, and walked in. The loud chattering inside the room died promptly as the students saw him entering. They hurried to their seats, some of them tried to quickly mend the mess that they made, and others straightened their school blazers and ties, getting ready for class.

"Stand up!" said a student, and all the other students immediately stood up beside their seats. "Bow!" the students bowed to their teacher, which Levi returned briefly. "Sit down!" all the students sat back down, and for a while the classroom was filled with nothing but the sound of chairs being moved on the wooden floor. It was the usual mess before homeroom period started in the morning – no different from his last school. If it wasn't for a whole class of completely different people, he would have believed that he was still at East High.

"Good morning. A transfer student will be joining us today," said Levi, not wanting to waste any time with greetings. He signaled for Eren to get in, and once the boy was beside him near the teacher table, Levi began to introduce him. "This is Eren Yeager. He was previously from East High." Levi's words immediately cause loud murmurs to resonate in the room. Apparently, Eren wasn't the only one who found the idea of moving him to North High as laughable. These elite students certainly thought so too.

"Be quiet," said Levi, knocking a marker a few times to the surface of his wooden table to silence the class. The murmur was hushed immediately. "Oi kid, why don't you just introduce yourself to class." Eren put both of his hands into his pocket and gave the class a quick glance before going on.

"I'm Eren," he said – very casually, not even trying to be formal or proper on his first introduction. "So-" he said, moving his eyes back to Levi. "Where can I sit?"

Levi's eyes narrowed, again. "Second from the window, second row from the back," he pointed Eren to the designated chair. "And remember what I said about manners, Yeager."

"I will remember… _Sir_," said Eren, with a heavy emphasis on the last word. Returning his gaze and flashing his homeroom teacher a smirk, the boy slowly set out to sit on his chair. The strong smell of tobacco stung the noses of his classmates as he made his way to the back of the classroom. He threw himself on his seat, took off his school bag, and suddenly realized that heads had turned from every direction to scrutinize his moves.

"What?" he asked, annoyed. None of the students made an attempt to answer his question, as they hurriedly avoided his gaze and diverted their curious glances, facing the front of the classroom instead. Levi knocked again on his desk to gather their attention.

"Silence, everyone. Homeroom will now begin."

* * *

**_-Canned Juice and A Return Favor-_**

_Fate worked in mysterious ways._

_Truly, whether or not you believe in fate, you will always find that it had its own way to lead you to the most important things, and meet the most important person. It was almost as though there was an invisible red thread in life, connecting a soul with another one – arranging for them to meet at a certain time, in certain place. It was as though fate was trying to tell us – that there was always a reason behind everything._

_If Eren had been a good student, with good academic records and role-model behavior, he would never have committed that grave offense and be expelled._

_He would never have to move to a new school, and meet a certain golden girl whom he disliked at first, but fell madly in love later on._

_And if he had quitted his smoking habit on the first day he entered his new school – he would never have to go to the bathroom for a quick smoke, and therefore met a boy called Armin Arlelt, who will come to be his irreplaceable best friend._

* * *

"Oi!" Eren shouted, banging at the closed toilet cubicle door. It was lunchtime, and he had slipped out of his classroom even before the bell was finished ringing – looking for a place for a quick smoke break. He had wanted to go to the roof, but on his way there he found this secluded bathroom in the corner of third floor, and decided it will be a much better option. Only that, his plan didn't go so smoothly. The cubicle door was latched closed, and he had waited almost fifteen minutes for it to open. Meanwhile, it was getting more urgent for him to have a smoke.

"You in there! What the hell were you doing?" he continued, still banging impatiently on the door. "Get out of there, damn it! Stop hogging the bathroom!" But minutes passed and there was still no response. He let out an annoyed sigh and turned his back, deciding to head to the rooftop, when he suddenly heard the bathroom door creaked open.

"S-sorry….," said a timid voice. "You… you can use the bathroom now."

He turned. A small boy, shorter than him, was standing behind the newly-open door – his blonde hair was somewhat ruffled, and his pair of big, blue eyes was staring at him – looking both pitiable and anxious like a scared animal. "Finally," Eren approached the boy, and pulled the door open further, causing the other boy to stumble forward. "What were you doing in there for a whole fifteen minutes, anyway?" The boy winced a little, immediately paced to keep his distance off Eren, before answering with the same meek voice.

"I- I'm… hiding," he said quietly, and suddenly Eren felt his need to smoke was diminishing.

"What?" he asked, startled by the weird answer. "You were _hiding_? In this toilet cubicle? From what?"

"From… from… Taniyama-kun. And his gank." Eren knew nothing about those people, of course.

"And who are they?" he asked, getting even more confused to see the kid began to tremble a little when he answered.

"T-they were the… b-bullies," he said, not looking at Eren, but he could see tears began to form in his eyes. "T-they were always… bullying me, everytime they've got time to – even if there was no reason for them t-to… treat me in that way…," his voice choked, and he quickly wiped his tears with his sleeve.

"So…," he said, suddenly lifting his chin up and straightening his back to stare at Eren square on his eyes, "I know you're here for that too, so go ahead." His abrupt change from a scared, meek attitude to a radiant display of valor took Eren aback for a while.

"Hang on… what…?" Eren asked him back, having no idea of what the other boy was talking about.

"Didn't you come here to bully me also? Go on. Finish me. I still won't stoop so low to your level, though."

"Says who? I only wanted to use the restroom. And because you have so conveniently chosen it as your hiding place, I ended up wasting my time here. I've got no will whatsoever to bully you," Eren retorted, annoyed. And this time, it was the other boy's turn to be taken aback.

"H-huh...? Then you're not here to… bully me…? But…," he blinked a few times, running his gaze on Eren, from the top of his head to toe, then back to his face again. Eren could bet on all the money in his wallet that he knew precisely what the boy was going to say next. "But you look like…"

"A bad guy? A delinquent?" Eren cut his words, and the boy blushed. Of course. He had had this coming to him maybe a few hundred times before. "Yeah I'm not exactly a good guy. But I don't bully the weak. Plus I don't really know who the hell is this Taniyama you were talking about. I just moved here today." He held out his hand for the other boy to take. "Eren Yeager," he mentioned his name.

"Oh –" the boy replied, looking quite nervous but he took Eren's hand in his. "I'm Armin… Armin Arlelt."

"Hey there Armin," Eren nodded to the other boy. "You know what – I'm thirsty. Care to treat me some canned juice from the vending machine downstairs?"

"Huh? But…"

"Consider this a payback for making me wait for so long in front of the restroom as you shut yourself in," he said, and he saw Armin's face changed – from surprised to lightly amused, as he scuffled a laugh. "Okay," Armin agreed. "I guess I can do that."

"So – speaking of which," Eren continued, after they both headed downstairs to find the nearest vending machine. He cracked open the canned apple juice and poured the refreshing liquid down his throat, "You said you're being bullied? By this Tanikida?"

"Taniyama," Armin automatically corrected. "And yes… he's always bullying me. So lately, whenever we have free periods, I've been avoiding him by hiding in places like that… I'm pathetic, aren't I…?" he sighed, and Eren scoffed.

"Did you ever fight him, or you just let him bully you?"

"Of course I fight, at first. But they were many and I was alone… so there was no way I could win against them," he added bitterly.

"Right," said Eren, throwing his empty canned juice to the trash bin. "So… what you need against them is a friend."

Armin looked up at him, startled. "Do you mean….," he began to speak slowly

"Don't worry," Eren cut him, lifting his fist in front of Armin, "I don't like people who bully on the weak. Consider this my return for the canned juice. I'll help you fight them off."

Armin hesitated for a while, but finally, he raised his fist and lightly bumped it into Eren's.

"Thank you," he said, smiling in agreement, and Eren smiled back.

* * *

**_-The Biggest Jerk, by Yours Truly-_**

_You are a complete jerk, Yeager,_ her voice trembled slightly. Her hand was still raised in the air, having just smacked him flat on his face. He sure didn't expect that – and still he was getting more surprised by her next words.

_You have such a big mouth for someone who knows so little._

With that, she shoved past him, and opened the door to head downstairs, not turning back even once. He didn't try to call her either, simply standing there like a statue until he heard the last of her footsteps died away. Only after that, did he finally move to lean himself back against the wall, still rubbing his cheek. The pain was not much – it had even subsided by then. But more than the stinging pain that her palm had left on his cheek for a few minutes there, he was surprised that the 'good girl' would go as far as slapping someone without much thinking.

He'd thought that she would simply turn her back away from him, taking his words lying down. He'd thought that she wouldn't want to show her anger – keeping her passionless mask instead – telling the same lie that she had probably told herself and everyone else around her – that she was okay. It's what all the 'good girls' – the mindless puppet dolls was supposed to do. He had seen so many of them before, he had thought that she was also one of them.

But he was clearly wrong about her this time. She might be different – she might not be one of them, after all.

His cellphone buzzed, and he quickly flipped it open to stare at the screen. A new e-mail message just came in.

_From: Connie_

_Text: Oi, are you dead yet? Wanna come to our usual hangout?_

He grinned slightly as he typed his response.

_Not yet, though the idea is slowly becoming tempting. Roger, gimme 30 mins sharp to head there._

He pressed the send button, put his phone back to his pocket, and quickly headed down the stairs.

* * *

"Oi! Baldy!"

Connie turned when he heard his nickname, and grinned when he saw who was coming.

"Finally," he said, rising up to greet Eren and giving him a straight jab on his shoulder. "So, how are you holding on in the elite school?"

"Don't even talk about it," Eren groaned, lightly bumping his fist to his friend's arm. "That school is hell. I'm about a thin line away from committing suicide."

"_That_ bad?"

"Yeah, this day is the worst."

"You didn't meet any cute girls?"

"Well…," said Eren, pausing for a while as his mind drifted to a certain pretty, dark-haired girl he'd only met a few minutes ago. "There is… this one girl."

"Oh…?" said Connie, not paying him much attention. "So how is she like? Fuckable?"

"Yeah, hot chick," said Eren. He wasn't lying – for a high-school girl standard, especially such a studious one – Mikasa really could be considered, well for a lack of word, hot. "But she's definitely not my type."

"Huh," said Connie. He turned to his friend now, his eyebrows went up a little, expressing curiosity. "A hot chick that isn't your type? You sure you're not saying that because you can't straight-out fuck her…?" he asked, earning a straight punch from Eren, which caused him to laugh.

"Sorry man," he said, grinning. "I just didn't know that there's a hot girl who isn't on your radar."

"Well she's _damn_ hot, you know – pretty and all that. And the fact that she'd probably had every straight guy in school asking her out isn't any harder to figure out than the complexity of your hair care regiment."

"_Bald_ is the new trend," replied Connie, proudly running his fingers on his smooth, barren head. "It's nice – you can feel the breeze and you don't even need to wash your hair." Eren merely scoffed.

"Yeah right – said someone who got caught smoking by the vice principal and had his head shaved clean as punishment," he sneered, but Connie deliberately ignored him – busily feeling his pockets to look for his cigarette pack. "So if she's so good-looking," said Connie in an attempt to drive back the conversation. He pulled out a cigarette briefly lighted it, "Why is this chick not your type?"

Eren sighed irritably at the question. "You know what, she's really not bad… She's the golden girl type – pretty, class president, model student and whatnot. Some people might say she's the _jackpot_ – but she's just… uninteresting as hell to me. You know how some people are working very hard to be _perfect _– to satisfy the expectations of all people around...?" Connie nodded briefly at his question. "Well, this girl is like that. She's working her ass off trying to meet the expectations of each and everyone else – to the point that it's frustrating. She's got no personality whatsoever, _bloody boring._ Plus she's the type of people I really can't stand," he paused, scratching his head. "And uhh… well...," another pause as he recalled the scenes earlier that afternoon – of the words he had said and everything else that led to her palm being imprinted on the surface of his left cheek, "I sort of told her what I thought about her."

"Oh," said Connie, blowing out a heavy white smoke. "What happened then?"

"She flat-out slapped me square across my face," said Eren and Connie's cigarette fell to the floor as he rolled around on his back, letting out a thunderous roar of laughter.

"Sounds like this girl's got a _real_ personality right there then, man," he said, wiping his teary eyes from laughing too much. "_What did you say _to make her slap you on your very first meeting, anyway? You must be such an asshole. Well, not that I ever doubt you are one."

"Shut it, baldy," Eren sulked, and snatched Connie's cigarette packet to pull out one from it. "Not like it's my fault – she's the one acting as if she's on eternal PMS." He lighted the cigarette and brought it to his mouth, inhaling a long drag of tobacco and nicotine.

"Hey – we all know girls can be downright scary on PMS," Connie replied, grinning.

"They should have worn a sign on their foreheads, saying 'I'm on PMS' instead of letting us guess their moods all the time," Eren dropped his cigarette ashes on an empty coke can they had temporarily used as an ashtray. "What the hell made them think that guys have some kind of auto-sensor radar to detect whether or not they're on PMS mood? I don't."

"That kind of attitude is why you never have a girlfriend, Eren."

"I don't need one," said Eren, white cigarette smoke swirled up to the sky as he exhaled. "Sex you can get without committing – and girlfriends get really annoying after a while."

"Man…," Connie blew another puff of white smoke. "You're the biggest jerk, you know that?"

His friend's statement brought an instant grin on Eren's face. He nodded, solemnly. "Yeah, I am. Yours truly, and proud of it."

"Someday, a girl is gonna be the death of you," said Connie, lightly tapping his cigarette to dispose of the ash. "And then, I will be the one laughing my ass off."

"Yeah right," said Eren, giving his friend an obvious sneer. "I'd like to see _her_ try."

* * *

**_- A Table for Three-_**

"I'm home," Mikasa called as she passed through the front door to her house. "Welcome back," she heard her mother answered from the dining room.

"How's your day?" her mother asked, carefully sorting bowls and plates on the table. She sighed inwardly. "It was… fine," she quickly lied, not willing to talk about how this day had been her worst. "What's for dinner?" she approached the table and pretended to be interested in the dinner menu, hoping for a topic change.

"Mashed potato, salad, and hamburger steak," said her mother, and indeed she saw those menus spread out on the table. Though she wasn't in the mood for eating, those foods seemed tempting indeed. "Go and get changed," said her mother. She didn't listen however, as she saw her mother putting on a third plate on the table, beside an empty bowl and a pair of wooden chopsticks, and she felt a sense of fear began to creep at her.

There were only two of them, and they'd always had dinner just the two of them. But tonight, the table was made for three.

_No… it can't be._

Trying to suppress the surging mix of emotions, she slowly opened her mouth and asked her mother, "Who… is coming for dinner tonight?"

Her mother put down the bowls she had been wiping with a clean cloth, and stared at her. It was suddenly hard to breathe, and it felt like a moment of eternity before her mother finally answered, uttering the two words she had last wanted to hear.

"Your father."

She clutched the edge of the dinner table tremendously, not uttering a word. Her pair of dark eyes portrayed unmistakable horror, and beneath the table, her knuckles turned very, very white from the pressure.

* * *

**A/N: So, that's basically it for chapter three. What do you think? It's mostly about Eren and his background story, how he came to a student in North High School. What he did to be expelled though, is not going to be revealed until some later chapters, so.. sorry for you who are curious about it :P**

**Like I said before, I'm really nervous about this chapter. I don't know how well I've been able to write this, so _please, please,_ drop me your review. Tell me what you think, guys. It will really help to keep my motivations up.**

**See you in the next chapter.**


	5. Conceal, Reveal

**A/N: Thank you for your kind reviews! Since many of you are requesting a faster update, I have been working on it... and bam, here goes a fairly quick update to this fic! Well, at least for my standard (I _know_. Thank you, muses)**

**Eremika shippers, rejoice! There's a lot of shipping moments going in this chapter w w w**

**WARNING: explicit mention of violence and physical abuse ahead**

**Reviews are better than hot cocoa on rainy days.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Eren previously attended Shiganshina East High School, but was expelled due to his heavy violation of multiple school rules, and moved to North High. None of his friends knew of this ordeal, except for Annie, who showed sympathy and compassion to him. His first day at the new school was awful, though he managed to become friends with Armin, a nice kid who was a victim of bullying. Frustrated at himself and the whole situation, Eren decided to take it out on Mikasa, the so-called best student in the entire school. However, not willing to simply take his words lying down, she slapped him. Afterwards, Eren met a friend from his old school, Connie, to have a boys' talk - meanwhile Mikasa went home, and was dreaded to find that her father would come home for dinner._

* * *

_**-A Good Deal-**_

The start of the day had never been weirder for Ayako.

Her days had always been weird of course, but not as many counted to be as weird as today. First of all, it's almost October. In the town of Shiganshina, October basically meant a month full of near-extreme weather volatility – implying a general unwritten rule to always bring an umbrella, and check the weather forecast before going out of the house. A sunny weather followed by a storm, or heavy rain in the morning quickly being replaced by the hot, dry sun, were all too common things to happen in October. And this morning, was a morning like that.

She paced as fast as she could through the heavy downpour that had suddenly enveloped the whole town, coating everything in its curtain of silvery-white. Good thing she had remembered to check today's weather forecast about fifteen minutes before she had left her house. Making her way to the foyer, she folded her wet umbrella carefully and let water drip from it to the stone floor, which was already muddy with traces from the heavy rain. She ran her fingers through her waist-length honey-brown locks – trying to shake off the remaining water droplets on her hair, and sighed. She hated rain, it ruined her looks – her clothes and her shoes were now soaked, and her hair… which she had so carefully combed and arranged this morning, now was nothing but a bundle of damp, tangled mess. Quickly she took off her shoes and put them in her shoe locker, replacing them with a pair of white slippers – a mandatory item to use indoor in typical Japanese high schools, just so the school staves will not be busied with cleaning the dirty floor. Granted, she was a little bit glad to have something else to wear while waiting for her shoes to dry. She combed her long brown hair one last time with her hand, trying to make herself look at least presentable, before finally heading upstairs to her classroom.

"Morning," she greeted, opening the sliding door to her classroom, and finding the usual chattering noise greeting her back.

"Hi, Ayako," said someone who had been sitting on her chair.

"Hi, Mikasa," Ayako replied, busily looking into her schoolbag for a hairbrush and face powder. There were still five minutes before class started – she could at least use that time to hit the girl's restroom and fix her appearance. "Thank you for yesterday, I feel better now. By the way, do you happen to bring a hairbrush? I think I forgot to br-," she looked up from her bag to stare at the person sitting behind her desk, and her voice quickly died away. Her jaw dropped slightly in utter astonishment when she realized that it wasn't Mikasa at all.

"What are you doing here?!" she asked, half-screaming, at the figure of Eren Yeager who had been occupying her seat, effectively turning half of the class's attention to her. The boy merely grinned at her surprise. "I'm sitting," he replied lightly by stating the obvious, causing several onlookers to giggle at his answer.

"I can see _that_!" Nanako replied heatedly. "I mean, why are you in my seat? No, first of all, why are you even in this school?"

"What…," Eren frowned at the startled girl and asked back, "Have we met?"

"Of course we have! You were in that group blind date a few months back. You're Eren, right?"

"Oh, that," said Eren, finally remembering what Ayako told her. "Yeah, I suppose I've gone to a few of those stuffs… I remember there was a girl from North High once, so that was you?"

"Yes that was me," said Nanako. Her brown eyes were fixed at Eren, who had now got her undivided attention. "Wait, so you transferred here?"

"Yep. Since yesterday, I'm officially part of this high school. Aren't you excited?"

"Not if you sit on my chair. Get off," she said, slamming her school bag to the table to forcefully drive the boy out of her seat. Eren though, remained unfazed and simply gave her another grin, before going on.

"I've got a deal to make with you," he said.

"What deal?" she asked before she could help it. Though she was still annoyed, a part of her was beginning to realize that from up-close, Eren was indeed good-looking.

Especially with that boyish grin of his.

_Really_. She quickly shook her head to whisk off the thought, somewhat angry at herself. Mikasa was right. She could hardly look at boys without feeling the need to hook-up.

"A really good one," his voice interrupted her thoughts, "Let's swap our seats."

It took a few seconds for Ayako to process his weird request. "You want _my_ seat? Why?"

"Because as far as I know, you're sitting behind the smartest student in class. In the whole school, even."

"You mean _Mikasa_?" she frowned. "That still didn't explain anything."

"It didn't have to. Look here Ayako, do you realize what you're missing?"

"If it wasn't so obvious already… No, I don't. Except for the fact that the teacher's coming in a few minutes and you're hogging my seat," she tried again to push him off, but Eren ignored her and went on.

"I'm offering you _my_ seat, the so-called hottest seat in class – second from the window, second row from the back," he waved casually to his seat. "It's where every student in class ever wanted to sit, and I'm giving it to you, for _free._ All I want is just to swap it with yours. Good deal, right?" He smirked as he saw Ayako was beginning to get taken in by his words.

"So, how is it…? Deal?" he asked again, offering his hand for her to take. Ayako chewed her lips.

Certainly, she didn't like her seat now, which was second row from the front of the classroom – the teacher could see all too well of what she's doing, she couldn't ever take a nap or discreetly text with her phone underneath the table when the class had become too boring to stay awake. But if she took his offer and moved to his seat….

_Mikasa's not going to be happy with this_, Ayako sighed. Nevertheless, she took the boy's hand in hers and shook it, sealing the deal.

* * *

_**-Huckleberry Finn-**_

"Sorry I'm late!" Mikasa opened the classroom door and stood at the entrance, out of breath. School started at 9 AM, and she was already about eight minutes late. It was embarrassing – her being late to school and all – she was never late before, not even once. But today, due to various reasons, she had woken up late. And the heavy rain on the way to school did not help either.

"Ahh, Ackerman, is it? Don't worry. Just sit yourself down, you look pretty worn out," a cheerful voice replied. With relief, Mikasa saw that it was Miss Nanaba, the English teacher, behind the teacher's desk today – instead of the strict Mr. Levi. _That one_ certainly wouldn't let her get away without punishment for being late. She would probably have to sacrifice her free periods after school to polish every corner of the classroom for a week.

Thankfully, that didn't have to happen.

"I'm sorry," she said once more, bowing slightly to Nanaba and quickly slipping into her seat. Just as she put down her bag and was about to pull out her English book, she heard someone speaking with an awfully familiar sluggish tone from the seat behind her.

"Hi there, Ackerman. Wonder what's keeping the model student to be late." Mikasa turned around faster than the speed of light – and found Eren's pair of emerald green eyes staring at her, grinning ear-to-ear, obviously enjoying her reaction. She cringed at her seat.

"What are _you_ doing here?" she hissed through clenched teeth, trying to keep her voice low. She was already lucky being able to get away with coming in late, she didn't want to risk a detention by causing a commotion straight after.

"For the second time today, I'm sitting."

"_Ayako_ is supposed to be sitting there."

"She wanted my seat, so we swapped."

"She did?" asked Mikasa, not wanting to believe him. Raising her eyes, she glared at Ayako who was now sitting at her new seat. The girl clapped both of her palms in front of her face and mouthed a silent apology, clearly looking like the guiltiest person in the whole room. Mikasa merely shook her head as a response.

"I can't believe this."

Eren shrugged, "You better."

"Why did you even bother to move here? Your seat is practically the best seat in class," said Mikasa, opening her notebook and turning her eyes to Nanaba, who had begun to tell the class about their new assignment.

"I like this seat better. I get to sit closer to you," came his reply. She pretended not to listen to his words and scribbled on her notebook, somewhat more vigorously than usual.

"Is everyone clear?" asked Nanaba to the class, ending her long explanation. Apparently, she was going to split the class into pairs and have them write essays and in-depth analysis about an English literary work for the rest of the term. Several heads nodded to answer her question, Mikasa's included. "Okay, now I'm going to start dividing you into pairs and have you partner up based on your last names. Just a reminder, this is a term-long assignment, which means you're going to have the same partner until this term ends. Let's see…," Nanaba picked up the attendance list and ran her long, thin fingers through the list of names. "First up is… Ackerman, Mikasa and…," her eyes flicked to the last name on the list. "Yeager, Eren."

Mikasa nearly fell out of her chair.

"Nice. So it seems like you're stuck with me for the rest of the term now," said Eren from behind her back, sounding greatly amused. She didn't bother to comment.

"Now, everyone partner up, please!" said Nanaba, and soon the class erupted into commotions, as students ran around crossing the classroom, chattering and dragging their chairs to sit beside their partners. Slowly, trying to buy time as much as she could before finally having to face him, she turned her chair around and put her books on his table, looking everywhere but at him.

Of course. Of course, rather than the possibility of her being partnered up with Ayako, or Reika, or any other sensible person who had at least been her _friend_, it was more likely that she would end up with _this_ person she had last wanted to pair up with.

"Ackerman," she heard the transfer student saying her name, and she looked up at him, surprised by the sudden sincerity in his voice. "Are you upset at me…?"

She stared at him for a while. There it was again – he was a jerk one second, and a decent, nice person the next. It was as though he had two personalities – and she couldn't quite figure out which one was the real him.

"Yesterday I was," she said carefully, after thinking for a while. It was downright confusing – she didn't know how to handle his constant mood changes. "But today, I'm not… or not yet, at least."

"Yeah, I forgot to thank you for the souvenir you left at my cheek yesterday," he said, and she had to hold back an (almost) satisfied smile.

"You're welcome," she replied, opening her book. "What is our assignment for this term?" she asked, trying to steer the topic away from their horrible first meeting. Talking like this normally to him, she began to regret what happened the other day, just a little. Maybe she shouldn't have gone that far to slap him… but then again, he was a real jerk, at least yesterday he was – he deserved it, so to speak.

"Isn't your name number one on attendance list?" he asked, and she nodded. "Yes, why?"

"The teacher just wrote it on the board. Our assignment is something titled _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_," he pointed his pen to the blackboard, and Mikasa turned around. Nanaba had indeed scribbled the title of that famous Twain's novel on the board, beside their names.

"Touché," she muttered.

"What?"

"I said 'touché'," Mikasa repeated, turning back to face him. "You are sort of the Huckleberry Finn in real life… wait, have you ever read the book?" she asked, interpreting his blank stare as confusion. He shook his head, and she sighed. "Then read it, I don't want to be the only one doing this assignment."

"But reading books isn't my thing," he smiled lazily at her. "Besides, it's the good side of partnering with you. I don't have to work hard and I'd still get a good mark."

"That is not how the rule works."

"Of course not. I'm not one to follow rules."

"What do you have against rules, Yeager?"

"And what do you have to always follow them?" he asked back, his words brought her to a pause. Putting down her pen, she slowly looked at him. She had detected it again – the slightly harsh tone in his voice, very subtle, yet to her ears it couldn't be more obvious. Once again, it felt like yesterday. He was a nice person and suddenly, without as much as a warning, he turned into a complete arse.

And though she wasn't so sure about it yesterday – she couldn't have mistaken it today. It was her words – something that she said had upset him, somehow. It was still a vague hint, but she was beginning to realize one thing. Eren Yeager seemed to have some kind of profound distaste toward rules and any other form of limitations.

"Why do you… always feel the need to defy rules?" she asked, being careful as to not incite another train of unpleasant events like yesterday. "They are made for us to comply, for the… convenience of everyone."

"Silly. Rules are made for us to break," he answered lightly, running his fingers through his messy brown hair and giving her a half-hearted grin, as though asking her to counter his words.

"Why don't you just read the book and make it easier for me, Yeager? I'll lend you mine," she gave him a tired sigh, not willing to prolong the argument any further. Eren didn't answer, but his eyes slowly trailed across her features. As he watched her beginning to make a 'to-do' notes on her book, the corner of his lips crooked up a little, forming a smile which meaning was unknown to anyone else but him.

* * *

**_-What She Conceals-_**

The bell rang, marking the end of the first period.

"Okay, everyone! That is all for our lesson today. Remember that your first assignment is due in the next two weeks – so make sure to finish it by then!" Nanaba collected her books from the table and exited the classroom. Mikasa checked her timetable to find out the next subject, then sighed at length. Second period is PE, with Mr. Auruo. It was usually her favorite, but there was a reason she wasn't looking forward to it now.

"Mikasa!" a hand tapped her on her shoulder, and for a moment she felt as though her heart had stopped. It was that voice – the same one that she had overheard in the girl's restroom, the voice belonging to her supposed 'best-friend' who had spouted out all the venomous things about her just yesterday.

Nanako.

Mikasa inhaled slowly, trying to sort her feelings. Needless to say, the whole situation exceeded the definition of awkward on her end. She didn't quite know how to face Nanako, especially after the whole accidentally-learning-about-her-stab-in-the-back ordeal yesterday. It was heartbreaking, to know that someone she trusted that much would say such things behind her. And she would be lying if she said that it didn't completely ruin her trust to other people after that.

Slowly, praying that her expression won't betray her, Mikasa turned and face the other girl. Nanako was standing there, smiling that sweet smile of hers – as though nothing had changed, as though there was nothing wrong with their friendship. Somehow, it broke her heart even more. Nanako didn't know that she had found out. And to be honest, she wanted to tell Nanako that she had known – that they didn't need to pretend any longer. But she also knew that it's not the right place to do that. Not here, not now. Nanako wouldn't be pleased if she knew that Mikasa had been in the toilet cubicle right behind her yesterday – listening to her ranting on about how much she hated her best friend.

"Let's go get changed! We're lucky the rain didn't last that long, aren't we? But then again, it's _October_," she continued, putting a heavy emphasis on the month's name. Mikasa stared at her for a while, trying to put together words inside her jumbled mind.

"Uhm…," she uttered a word – finally, "I'll have to pass. I need to hit the restroom first. You girls just head to the locker room, I'll catch up."

"Oh-," Nanako looked concerned, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just go ahead," Mikasa waved her hand dismissively. Before Nanako managed to say another word, she had turned around and left.

* * *

Inside the toilet cubicle, Mikasa stood against the wall and stared at her watch, silently as the small needles ticked by.

_Tick, tick, tick_

10.32 – three more minutes until she could enter the girl's locker room. She wondered if her lie had been convincing enough, or if any of her friends had noticed. She was lucky it had been Nanako who asked her today – she wasn't so observant. If it had been Ayako – she would probably note that Mikasa wasn't completely being honest. As easy-going as she was, Ayako's got a keen third eye. And Mikasa didn't want to have to deal with it now.

_Two more minutes_

There were certain times she had refused to change her clothes in front of the girls, making an excuse to go somewhere first instead. It hadn't happened that often lately, so she could as well hoped that it had slipped their attention, but still – she wondered how long she would be able to keep this up.

_One minute_

She clicked open the toilet door, trying to wash away any remnants of unnecessary emotions from her face. The school corridors were deserted, the teachers and students were all already in class for the second period – good for her. She made her way as fast as she could to the locker room, sincerely praying that all her classmates had left to the field when she entered. She didn't want to encounter a disturbing question, or having to explain why she refused to take her clothes off in front of people. Carefully, she pushed the door to the locker room open, and with a relief, she saw that it was empty.

She dropped her bundle of gym clothes on the nearest bench and started to undress. As she slipped her shirt off her shoulder, several horrendous purple bruises, along with some fresh reddish marks, began to uncover themselves – spread out all across her back and upper arms, ugly and daringly visible against her pale milky skin.

_It's nothing big. She was used to this._

She put on her gym clothes and hurriedly headed outside toward the field – swiftly joining her other classmates before Mr. Auruo had a chance to notice that she was late.

* * *

_**(The Night Before)**_

There was nothing different, or strikingly unusual, about Kyoko Ackerman.

She was just an average, typical middle-class Japanese housewife. She was born Kyoko Himura, here in in the small town of Shiganshina, and raised by loving parents. She had a younger sibling, and a pet dog. Growing up, she was adored by everyone – for she was a sweet girl, nice and sensible – sort of the girl everyone would want as a friend, and her parents' pride. Constantly being the school Madonna, she decided to marry Hans Ackerman at the age of 23. A year later, the couple was blessed with a beautiful daughter – Mikasa. Hans had chosen the name, and Kyoko had frowned when she first heard it. She didn't want to name her daughter after a _war ship_ – but her husband insisted that it's a suitable name for her.

_Mikasa is the name of a mountain_, he assured her. _She'll grow up to be strong. Beautiful, and strong_. And she finally relented.

Her marriage though, didn't turn out to be as happy as her earlier life had been.

Just like tonight.

She glanced at the clock for about a hundredth time that night. The hands of the device pointed at 10.30 PM – about three hours had passed since she prepared dinner on the table. And still there was no sign of the person she had been waiting for.

"He's late," said Mikasa from across the table. She sighed. This wasn't the first time it happened.

"I know dear. He probably had some… business to attend to."

_Probably drinking in a strip bar, _Mikasa thought, but she refrained from saying that. Instead, she got up from her chair. "I'll… go upstairs for a while. I need to catch up to some homework. I'll be right back down when he comes," she smiled, upon seeing her mother's worried look. _Don't worry, I'm old enough to know the rules in this house._

It hadn't been thirty minutes, she was still working on her math homework – when she heard the front door slammed open, followed by a huge noise roaring out her name in the next second.

"MIKASA! Where is Mikasa? Doesn't she know that she has to be present when her dad comes home?!" Inside her room, Mikasa's heart suddenly went very cold. She could hear all too clearly of the voice that she had dreaded the most – the voice that had become the very definition of _fear_ for her.

_He's here._

Panic hit her. Her pen cluttered to the floor as she hurriedly tried to reach for the door and run downstairs, but it was too late. She heard the thundering sound of footsteps drawing nearer, and the door swung open before she had any chance to grab the handle – revealing a thick, buff figure behind it. His expression was cruel, without a hint of mercy. And he certainly didn't spare any sympathy to the figure of Mikasa who stood in front of him – trembling in horror.

"I'm sorry," she said – her voice was near whisper. She had been trained to say that – again and again – on the presence of this man. Her cold fingers clutched the side of her nightgown desperately, and she was frozen on spot – unable to move, overwhelmed with fear.

"Dear, please…," said her mother who had run upstairs too. Tear-stricken, she pulled the back of the man's shirt – trying weakly to plead to him. "Please don't – not Mikasa… please…" but he ignored her mother's meek protest, and shook her off.

"You should be present at the dinner table when your father comes home for dinner," he spat, she could smell the strong stench of alcohol from his breath.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… father," her voice choked, her eyes widened in terror. Helplessly she tried to beg for his mercy, but he didn't listen. Towering over Mikasa, he raised his right hand, and without as much as a hint of forgiveness, he struck down at her.

* * *

_**-Ackerman vs. Kagawa-**_

"It's gotta be Kagawa."

"What! Are you kidding me? Ackerman nails it each and everytime."

"Well as far as I'm concerned, Kagawa Reika is the most capable girl in class for any kinds of sports. Seriously, she's even better than some of the boys."

"Ackerman has never lost a sprint to her – you'll see."

"You dimwit. Fine, I'll bet my lunch that Kagawa wins this time."

"Deal, I'll bet on Ackerman then."

"What's going on here?" asked Eren, walking in on a heated debate about the two girls. Mr. Auruo, their ever high-spirited PE teacher had decided that today was going to be an athletic class, namely a 100 meters sprint race. The girls were going to go first, followed by the boys after that. So, meanwhile waiting for the girls who were readying themselves on the race track, the boys lingered a few distance away on the outer field – wasting their time talking. And of course, boys being boys – there will always be talks about who will win the race – betting included.

The two boys who had been arguing stared up at him and inclined their heads slightly to greet him. "Yo there, transfer student," said one of them. "We were just betting our lunch on who will win the race this time – Ackerman or Kagawa. Wanna join?"

"Nah, I'm good," said Eren. "I don't have anything fancy to trade for lunch. Except maybe a few cigarettes, that one I have – I'm kidding," he said quickly – seeing the looks on their faces. He kept forgetting that he wasn't at his old school anymore. Students here didn't seem to smoke that much – what a pity. "So, I take it Ackerman is good at sports?" he tried to steer the topic.

"Yeah, very. There's nothing she's not good at. Sometimes, it just makes you kind of wonder… right? How come there's a person who's good at everything? God doesn't seem fair," said the boy who had been betting on Mikasa. Eren chose to say nothing on that remark. "Anyways, I don't believe we have talked before. I'm Shinji, and this guy is Takumi," he pointed to his friend.

"Taku, if you prefer," said the guy called Takumi, offering his hand to Eren, who took it and nodded. "Right. I'm Eren, pleased to meet you."

"Pleasure is ours," replied Shinji, flashing a smile toward him. "Oh look – the girls are going to start the race soon. Prepare to lose, Taku."

"Same goes to you."

Mr. Auruo blew the whistle and the girls all sprang to a start, Mikasa leading. Shinji snickered at Taku, but his friend merely shrugged it off.

"Calm down man, this race's just starting," said Taku, his eyes never leaving the field. "There, Kagawa's starting to overtake her…"

It was true – Mikasa's lead couldn't be maintained that long, for Reika started to come from behind her, and took the number one position. The crowd cheered at the brilliant maneuver, but Shinji groaned. "Oh come on," he said. "You have my lunch, Ackerman, you can't lose!"

The two girls tied head to head, Mikasa constantly tailing behind Reika and threatening to overtake her position, but Reika still managed to win by a thin line ahead. The crowd erupted into an even louder applause at the fierce battle – half rooting for Reika, half wanting Mikasa to take back the lead. But the support for Mikasa quickly died out as the crowd watched in utter disbelief. Instead of leading, Mikasa slipped further and further behind Reika, to third place – and finally finished at fourth.

"What–" complained Shinji, unwilling to accept the result. "Ackerman's at _fourth_? That Ackerman?" The three boys stared in astonishment at the dark-haired girl who was still standing on the finish line, breathing heavily. The silence at the other end of the field told them that they weren't the only one surprised by this result.

"Yeah, strange – usually she could do ten rounds of lap around the school and not even in the least bit tired," Takumi commented, frowning at the figure of Mikasa. She bent her body slightly forward and rested both hands on her knees – clearly looking worn out from the short race. "Seems like she's not on her best condition today," he added, shrugging.

"But anyway," he grinned, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't forget to treat me lunch today."

"I know _that_ already," Shinji retorted, pushing his friend's hand aside. "We should be getting ready soon, too. Come on, Eren!" he called to the boy, who had been standing a few distance away from them.

"Yeah," Eren responded, sending one last glance toward Mikasa before joining his friends. "I'm coming."

* * *

**_-What He Reveals-_**

Mikasa turned the metal faucet open, and let the cold water washed over her face. Finally, the long period of PE was over. Her favorite subject had never been as bothersome as today. It was hard enough having to change her clothes discreetly, not to mention avoiding people's pricking, curios glances at her. Certainly, she had caused several eyebrows to raise in question after her poor performance on a subject she had constantly excelled at. The difference must have been as striking as the first rays of sun at daybreak.

However, just like any other time – she had tried to whisk off their questions by making up a believable excuse – that she was just a little tired today. And they all had taken her lie this time as well, swallowing it whole. Not even a further question was asked.

She ran one hand along her upper back, and gasped when her fingers accidentally pressed against her bruises. Wincing slightly, she quickly retracted her hand to its previous place. Her expression of pain lasted only for a split second. She was back to her normal, cold look in the next one – as though nothing ever happened.

"Hey _Snob_," said someone suddenly. "You sure don't look so good today."

Mikasa glanced upward to the ever-familiar mocking smirk of Eren's, but said nothing in response. She brought her mouth closer to the gurgling tap water and gulped some of it, then turned the faucet closed. Wiping her face with a clean towel, she began to walk away from him, still not saying a word.

"Oi, what's with the silent treatment?" he asked again, and she stopped.

"Were you talking to me? I don't remember my name being _Snob,"_ she replied coolly.

"It's a nickname. This school is the biggest snob high school in this town, and you are the biggest snob in school, so –" he slipped both his hands into his pocket, "_Snob._"

"Suit yourself," she draped the towel over her shoulder, shaking her head slightly. This boy and his sassy mouth were certainly the last in her priorities to deal with now. Once again, she turned on her heels and started to leave.

"Why don't you just stop lying?" His next words startled her, prompted her to a halt.

"About what?" she asked him, puzzled. And she was more confused still when he gave her a short, mocking laugh.

"Stop it already, Snob. If you can fool the others, you can't fool me," he said. She eyed him carefully, trying to make sense of where his talk was going. With a stern gaze fixed at her, he continued.

"Where did you get that?" he asked, tilting his chin slightly toward her. There was no sluggish tone this time, no humor in his voice. And the flames on his eyes were the exact same ones she had seen yesterday.

"Get _what_?"

"Those bruises underneath your arms."

At his words, her hand immediately jumped to grip the inside of her upper arms – trying to cover the remnants of her exposed bruises. She had hoped that no one would notice, but it seemed like her luck had run out. Her short-sleeved gym uniform certainly couldn't do much about concealing. This was why she hated PE – especially on days like this…

"Yeah, I saw them," he said dryly. She didn't reply. His outright crass words took her by surprise, for a few moments she could do nothing but stared at him, deprived of words. Her brain that had been trained with making up lies and excuses was suddenly unwilling to cooperate.

_He knew_. Her throat felt dry as she thought of the possibility. Slowly she began to feel a surge of emotion that was usually buried deep within her - fright. He had seen her state, he probably had guessed where she got her bruises also. It wasn't as hard to add two and two. And Eren Yeager, though he might not seem like it at first, was certainly a sharp one.

It took her a few seconds before she could maintain control of herself again. When she did, she straightened herself and locked her gaze with his, pretending to play dumb to his words.

"I fell down the stairs," she finally heard herself spoke, telling the first lie that had crossed her mind.

"_Wow_. Must be a really hard fall then." She couldn't miss the sarcasm in his voice. It was useless trying to lie to him.

But she couldn't let him know the truth.

"Mind your own business, Yeager," she said, trying to maintain her impassive voice. He said nothing further to counter her, and she took it as a chance to walk away from him.

_Of all the people that could have noticed_ – she paced as fast as her feet could bring her. She wanted to get herself away from that place, as far as possible. She didn't want to talk to him. She didn't even want to have to face him. Not after he had so fervently pulled up her cover, and blatantly pointed out the thing she had so desperately tried to hide.

_Of all the people that could have noticed, it was him. It wasn't any of her friends – it was him._

She didn't know how he did that – how he saw through her like that. They had known each other only yesterday, and not one of them left a good impression for the other. She didn't like him, he didn't like her. But in that short time, he had noticed the things that her friends didn't. He had refused to take up her lie, throwing it back to her face instead – he exposed her weakness in the most brutal kind of way.

He kept her confused – and she hated him for it.

* * *

_**-Three on One-**_

There had always been three of them, and only one of him.

It had all started like usual. He was just walking around the corridor, minding his own business, when he ran into them – Taniyama and his gank.

_Ooh Armin_. _No wonder, I thought I smelled garbage_, Taniyama had said. To which, his other two cronies had adjacently joined, forming up a circle on him so he couldn't escape. And he knew by then that it was the start to their other run of 'fun and games'.

'Fun and games' for them, and 'bullying' for him.

A rough hand grabbed him by the collar, and slammed him hard against the wall. Ignoring the pain that seemed as though his bone had shattered to pieces, he brought his eyes up and met the gaze of his bully instead.

"Do it," he said, and their laughter died. "I'm not afraid of _you_."

Dead silence. Then he felt the hand grabbing his collar stiffened.

"Is that so? Looks like we need to remind you, then…," Taniyama sure didn't seem pleased. _It's over, _Armin thought. He had clearly pissed them off. He closed his eyes and prepared for the worst.

"What's going on here?" asked a female voice, and he felt Taniyama halted. Armin opened his eyes. Behind Taniyama and his two friends, he saw the figure of a dark-haired girl with porcelain-white skin. She crossed her arms, witnessing the whole scene with great disdain.

_It's Ackerman…_ one of his gank whispered, and Taniyama nodded. _Yeah, let's go. Better not be involved with her._

He released his grip from Armin's collar, letting him drop to the floor. Without as much as another word, the three trotted away, leaving Armin alone with Mikasa, trying to process the situation.

"Hey," the girl called, and he turned at her. "Are you okay? Can you stand?" she asked, offering her right hand to him. Armin eyed her for a while – from the concerned look on her face, to her outstretched hand. Then he diverted his glance to the cold white floor and replied bitterly.

"I'm fine, I can stand by my own."

"Oh-" Mikasa had nothing else to say. "Okay… Is this yours...?" She began to pick up loose papers that had been scattered all around the floor, and gathered them in her hands. As she flipped one of the white, thick papers, her eyes grew wide from astonishment. Before she had the chance to say anything, Armin quickly snatched the papers away from her, his face reddening.

"You saw…?" he asked.

She nodded slightly, still amazed. "Is that… your drawing?"

He said nothing, blushing even more furiously. She smiled at his agitation, and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"There's no need to be shy, you're a good artist."

"You think so?" he asked, uncertain.

"Definitely," she said, still smiling. "That was Mr. Levi you drew, right? I recognized it immediately. Your drawing was so… precise." She paused, then pointed at herself. "I'm Mikasa."

He knew, of course. There's probably no one in school who didn't know her name.

"I'm Armin… Armin Arlelt."

* * *

**A/N: Aaand... it's done! Those of you who had been questioning about Mikasa's father... now you got your answer. Teehee.**

**I hope you're satisfied with the amount of Eremika scenes I put in the chapter... Don't worry, there will be more of them later! \w/**

**Just a heads up, I'm probably going to take a small break from writing this story now, and focus instead on my collection of Eremika smut (it's titled 'A Color of Passion' if you want to check it out). Got some good ideas and prompts lately, so gonna write them when they're fresh! **

**Reviews make my day. Seriously, they do. Please tell me what you think, guys... I'm desperate x_x**

**See you in the next chapter.**


	6. Trick and Treat

**A/N: Alright, alright. You won. Since you keep asking me to update this fic... well... here it is. I know I said I was going to update my smut piece, but I just feel I can't abandon you who are hopeful for a new chapter ~:)**

**I'm sorry that I haven't been able to update faster, my health really hasn't been that good lately. Plus, I've got a gazillion things to deal with, so ****I won't be able to update until early June. ****But I will update, so worry not! **

**Enjoy~!**

* * *

_Last chapter: Mikasa's class had a new transfer student by the name of Eren Yeager, who was expelled from his previous high school for yet-known reasons. Mikasa's encounter with him didn't start off good, and the boy seemed to have made it his hobby to annoy her. Luckily (or unluckily, for her), they were paired for a term-long assignment in English class, which basically meant that she had to put up with him for the whole term. Meanwhile, Mikasa was suffering from domestic abuse by his father, and surprisingly, Eren was the only one who was aware of her state. However, still irritated with him, she told him to mind his own business and walked off._

* * *

**_-Roles and Responsibilities-_**

"YOU. DID. WHAT?"

Ayako's scream, reaching out to the top of pine trees in the school yard, did surprisingly little to faze Mikasa. She stared coolly at her friend, before starting, "There is nothing to get worked out about…" but Ayako ignored her, starting a rain of interrogative questions instead. Mikasa answered each of them simply with an affirmative, one-word response.

"You _asked_ Jean out on the weekend?"

"Yes."

"_After_ you turned down his invitation?

"Yes."

"And you dare to lecture me about being reckless with boys?

"Ayako…"

The two girls had been out together during their lunch break. September had passed and the month of October was almost in full swing – bringing about the crisp and freshness of autumn with it. Since today was quite a nice day, Ayako had suggested that they spend it outside, to which Mikasa had agreed. They both sat themselves down on the stairway behind the gym, eating their lunch and chatting, when the topic slowly drifted to boys. That was when Mikasa decided to tell Ayako about Jean.

Although, it turned out that Ayako's reaction was not nearly as casual as she had thought.

Mikasa looked at her brunette friend, who was still crossing her arms in front of her chest, looking at her with deep indignation. "I hope you realize the serious consequences of what you're doing, you know," Ayako continued, and Mikasa had to hold back the urge to retort at her.

Really, Ayako was the last person on earth who should be talking about consequences at all. When was the last time she was able to refrain from hooking up with boys right and left? And when she still had a boyfriend, on top of that. Not to mention her (potential) pregnancy problem, which by the way, still remained unsolved. Ayako might have a lot of experience with boys, but she had just as much responsibility as a ten year-old kid. How could someone like _that_ tell her about consequences?

Thank you, but Mikasa knew a lot more about consequences _and_ taking responsibilities than Ayako ever did.

"I'm just asking him out of courtesy, Ayako. That is all," Mikasa answered. Ayako's face certainly told her that she disagreed.

"True, except for the fact that Jean's had his eyes for you since a long time. He might not think it's courtesy at all," said Ayako, casually hitting the spot with her words. Mikasa sighed.

"I know," she murmured quietly, playing with the fried egg roll inside her lunch box. Ayako sure made a fair point this time, but all she did was reinforcing her guilt. She _knew_ she was wrong – she was aware of it within seconds she had asked Jean. First of all, it was Jean. Second of all… she really should _not_ ask him out if she didn't want him to get a wrong signal.

"What do you think I should do? I can't back out now," said Mikasa, emptily staring at her fingernails, as though hoping the answer would be written down there. He probably misunderstood her. Heck, even the whole school might have heard about it, and misunderstood too – God knows how many people Nanako had told about this. Last time she overheard her in the restroom, Nanako clearly didn't seem pleased.

"Well," Ayako hesitantly started. "Indeed, you can't. But you know… maybe you could… try to return his feelings?" Mikasa eyed her friend – surprised at the suggestion.

"You mean I should… date him?"

"Well," Ayako fidgeted nervously at her seat. She could tell that Mikasa didn't entertain her idea. "I mean… don't take me wrong, Mikasa. You're fabulous and all, Lord knows how many straight guys in this school had their eyes on you. And… how many you have turned down so flatly." She glanced at her friend's profile, and was a bit relieved to see Mikasa smiling slightly at her words.

"So I thought….," Ayako paused, her hand jumped to play with her brown bangs. "Since you've asked him out after all… Why don't you give him a chance? Jean's not a bad guy."

Mikasa drew back, slowly contemplating Ayako's words. Jean's crush to her seemed to have been a public secret for the whole school. Many times he had asked her out – many times also she had declined them. One time he had openly declared his special feelings for her, she had subtly told him that she couldn't return them. But then he asked if he could be her friend – just friend, and after a careful consideration, she said yes. However, she began to realize that it was wrong for her to agree to be his 'friend'. After all, it was pretty difficult to maintain a friendship with him when she knew all too well that Jean still kept a hope for her in his heart.

"I know he's not a bad guy," said Mikasa finally. Yes – Jean was a nice one, though sometimes Mikasa couldn't help thinking that he could do better with a proper brake system for his mouth. His crass personality surprised a lot of people plenty of times, mainly because he always said whatever was in his mind, without filtering anything. She'd had her fair share of problems too with him. "But whether he's nice or not has nothing to do with this. Nothing is going to happen between us."

"At all…?" asked Ayako, out of curiosity. Mikasa shook her head no.

"Not at all," she said firmly.

"Well," said Ayako after a while. "If you say so…"

An image flashed quietly before Mikasa's eyes. Her memory of a scene just a few afternoons back began to repeat itself her brain, along with a hateful voice, talking angrily behind her back.

_If she had even realized for just a bit how much I hated her – I wouldn't have to pretend we're best friends now._

_You're such a witch, Nanako._

_Well, I'm not even started…._

She clapped a hand to her mouth, once again feeling the sudden need to throw up all her lunch. No matter how many times she re-played the memory, Nanako's vicious words still hurt as much as the first time she heard them, cutting her open and letting her bleed, without even as much as a remedy to treat the wound. It was strange – she had been hurt many times before, but nothing felt as bad as a back-stab from her close friend. It still made her feel like she was being swallowed whole by an overwhelming emptiness.

Ayako touched her shoulder worriedly. "Are you OK, Mikasa?"

"I'm fine," she answered, lightly brushing Ayako's hand off her shoulder. Ayako caught on immediately. Many times she had seen Mikasa like that, and when it happened, it was best to leave her alone. She drew back her hand and let it drop to her side, saying nothing further. It usually didn't last very long, and she was right. Soon she heard Mikasa spoke again, her tone was back to normal.

"So Ayako… About your health… have you checked yet?"

"Uhm," she started. "I haven't. But you know… I'm getting better lately, so I really don't think I should…"

"Ayako," Mikasa cut her sharply, and she stopped.

"I know, Mikasa… I _know _I should. I'm just too… afraid to face it alone." She bent down and hugged her knees. Her wavy brown hair fell on her sides, hiding her face from view. From where Mikasa sat, she looked exactly like a sad and pitiable ball of fluff. Mikasa was reminded immediately of a scared, crouching hamster.

"Nobody says you're going to have to face it alone," said Mikasa, and Ayako looked up at her – surprised. "But…," she mouthed silently. "But you are clearly _angry_ at me."

"Of course I am. But being upset isn't a reason to abandon you – or else I would have done so the first time this happened," said Mikasa, and Ayako was silenced completely.

Mikasa turned her head a little when she heard a familiar sound reverberating through the whole school. "There's the warning bell. We should head back." She wrapped up her lunch box carefully, Ayako mimicking her actions beside her. The trip back to their class was short, and none of them said a word in the meanwhile. Shortly before they entered the classroom, Mikasa felt Ayako's hand slipping in between her fingers, squeezing lightly.

"Thank you," she muttered silently. Just a little, Mikasa could see the twinkling tears on her friend's shade of hazel eyes.

* * *

_**-Ice Queen and A Slight Hunch-**_

"Okay… I've got myself three Jacks and two fives here… I guess I won!" Eren exclaimed proudly, spreading out his cards on the floor in front of him. "Full house! You take it, Armin!"

Armin frowned, looking at his cards. "Well uhm… I hate to tell you…," he flipped his cards, and Eren saw four Kings glaring at him. "Damn!" he instantly cursed, ruffling his hair so that it was even messier than usual. "How the hell did I lose four times in a row? You must have the luck of the devil."

"Not really, I just paid a closer attention to chances," Armin replied modestly, gathering the cards and shuffling them again. "Anyway, don't we better stop now? We'd be in big trouble if a teacher catches us gambling with cards." Eren snorted.

"Yeah right – like any of them would bother to come here. One, it's rooftop. Two, it's lunchtime so they're probably busy minding their own business. And three, even if a teacher does come here and catch us – we're not gambling with money, so chill," he replied lazily. Armin still looked unconvinced.

"But… we gambled on lunch items, and we buy them with money," he tried to reason with Eren – unsuccessfully. The other boy merely waved his hand.

"That's different," he replied. Armin couldn't see how they were any different, but he kept it to himself, as usual.

"One more round then," Armin began to distribute the cards evenly. Five for him, five for Eren. As they both opened their cards, Armin couldn't help but notice how easy it was to win a poker round against Eren. That boy could hide nothing at all. Whether he had a good set of cards or totally screwed up would always show on his face. Just like now, his eyes were glistening with triumph, and his gestures certainly told him that he was confident of winning. Armin himself had got decent cards – with two Queens he could easily go for a full house, or four of a kind. But first, he had to see what kind of cards Eren would have. If he had Kings or above, Armin's chances of winning were slim.

"Shuffle three," said Eren, brimming with confidence. Armin nodded. "Three also." They both put down three cards from their hands and shuffled them into the deck, then drew new ones. Armin stared at the three cards on his hand with conflicted feelings. Just his luck – he had got two Kings and a seven. Now he had two pairs of high-ranked cards. It was still risky, he wanted to at least secure a full house before calling this…

"Shuffle," said Eren, and Armin boldly made a move. After all, poker was risk. He shuffled his seven inside the deck. Eren shuffled in two cards, and grinned as he drew out his new cards.

"Call," Eren said, and showed his cards. "Two pairs." He had two Jacks and two Aces.

Armin opened his cards and smiled broadly. Three Kings and two Queens. Eren threw his cards in the air and groaned.

"Alright man, I give up. It's impossible to beat you."

"Eren, you just show your emotions too easily," said Armin, collecting their cards again. "Rule number one in poker is to not let your opponents know what kind of cards you have. You know… practice your poker face."

"For someone with such an innocent face, you're kinda scary, you know?"

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment, but I'll take it, thanks," Armin smiled. "But you know, Ackerman is probably a better player than I am." Eren's movement halted at the mention of her name.

"Ackerman?" he asked, frowning at Armin. "What's she got to do with this?"

"She's a real ice queen, don't you think? People like her are born to play poker. I rarely see her expression change."

"Yeah, she's an ice queen," Eren replied, "And also a very good liar." Armin raised his eyebrows at his friend's sudden harsh words.

"You aren't on good terms with each other?" he asked, and Eren shrugged. "You could say so. I can't stand her – she can't stand me."

He lightly threw himself on his back to stare at the open autumn sky. He hadn't talked to Mikasa again since the incident at PE the other day. That girl clearly avoided talking to him, unless there was a desperate need to. He didn't try to engage her in a conversation either, simply playing along with her game of silence. He knew of course, why she treated him that way. And if silence was what she would give to a person who knew the truth – he could be silent for as long as she wanted.

"Hey Armin," he called the other boy. "You reckon Ackerman has a boyfriend?" Armin frowned at the swift topic jump.

"Not that I know of, but I might be wrong… Why? I thought you aren't interested in her."

"Nah, just curious," Eren pulled himself up. It was just a slight hunch – not that he cared much about it. It wasn't his business anyway whether or not Ackerman had a boyfriend.

"Nevermind that. Anyway, I'll go buy you lunch – since I lost the poker game. What do you want?"

* * *

_**-A Date for Three-**_

"Oi, Armin!" someone yelled amidst the usual chattering noises. School was over that day, and Armin was neatly packing things into his schoolbag, when he heard his name being called. He turned and saw one of his classmates gesturing him to the door. "You've got company."

Warily he approached the door. He had expected it to be Taniyama and his friends again – however, he was surprised to find that it wasn't them this time.

It was Mikasa.

"Hi," she said. In his astonishment, he forgot to say hi back.

"Armin… is it? Are you free now?" she slipped a few strands of stray black hair behind her ear. He nodded, still not uttering a word.

"Great, uhm… I've got a favor to ask, if you don't mind."

* * *

_I'm going home, I'm going home, I'm going home! I can't stand this!_ Frantically Armin tore a piece of paper from his book and wrote his thoughts on it, then passed it to Mikasa who sat beside him. The girl simply stared at her friend's cursive handwriting for a few seconds before passing it back – her answer was concise on the plain white piece of paper

_No, you won't._

He put out his pen and wrote back.

_You didn't tell me about this!_

_That was on purpose. _

He glared at her. Again, her answer was concrete and simple. But it didn't make the situation better, at least not for him. The guilty party simply returned his fury with a cool, undisturbed look, batting her eyelashes a few times, clearly wasn't looking concerned at the awkward situation she had put him in. He opened his mouth to whisper a protest at her, but was cut by Jean's annoyed words.

"What are you going on about?" asked Jean, sending them both a look from the top of his book. Armin and Mikasa replied in unison, "Nothing."

"Well, you've been scurrying for quite a while, you know."

"Armin just… needs my help to finish a problem. Not a big thing," said Mikasa. Armin's heart sank a little. How did she tell a lie with such a straight face? Inevitably, his mind jumped to the rounds of poker with Eren on the rooftop just a few days ago.

_People like her are born to play poker. I rarely see her expression change._

_Yeah, she's an ice queen. And also a very good liar._

Eren was right – Mikasa _could_ be a very proficient liar if she wanted to.

Armin made sure Jean's attention had returned to his book, before putting the piece of paper back on the table and wrote again.

_I really shouldn't have been here. This is your date. And he's been staring at me crossly ever since I got here. _

When Mikasa asked him to accompany her to the library this coming Saturday, he didn't suspect a thing. Besides his initial surprise that the most popular student in school would talk to him at all – he was glad to make friends with her. He wouldn't tell, but he had been observing the girl for quite a while. All the times he saw her, she always seemed cold and distant, as if she didn't want people to be near her. And he knew that half the school secretly thought of her as an 'elite' – unapproachable by the common people.

However, when she came to find him in his class the other day, he knew that he was wrong. She wasn't as much an elite as an ordinary girl. Yet she was probably very lonely, for no one would treat her as a person. To people, it was always Mikasa Ackerman, the trophy girl. As though she was an object to put on the pedestal and admire, no one would bother to remember that she also had a human side to her. A normal human side – which was slightly cold and awkward toward others, but extraordinarily kind.

He felt slightly guilty that he used to be one of the people who thought that way about her – so when she asked him for a favor, he agreed without much thought. What he didn't know though, was that _this_ particular girl was certainly not called the smartest student in school for nothing. She had a way of achieving her goals – very smoothly.

No question – Jean looked downright pissed when he saw Mikasa coming to their 'date' with another guy. Because seriously, who wouldn't? He'd probably been looking forward to this for the whole week, and now another guy came along and ruined it.

"This is Armin. He'll be joining us today," said Mikasa, casually introducing her friend while ignoring Jean's death glare toward the poor blonde boy who had been dragged into the situation without knowing anything. He didn't even get told until by her that they, in fact, will have a company by the name of Jean Kirschtein – at least not until approximately twenty seconds before the assembly time, when she had made sure that it was far too late for him to back out.

Jean's lips twitched dangerously when Armin held out his hand for him to take, and for a split second there he could swear Jean looked like he would rather use his hand to break Armin's neck rather than do a handshake. He gulped, nervously glancing at Mikasa – but the girl's face was as unchanging as ever. "Let's go?" she suggested. Jean gave one slight, curt nod – his expression looked like it was carved in stone. Armin gave a deep sigh before trailing inside the library behind the two – contemplating to leave as soon as he had a chance.

_This is not a date. And Jean's not cross at you – you're overthinking things._

Mikasa passed the note back to him, and he sighed as he saw her writing. Clearly she had no idea of the situation. Jean's been emanating a thickening aura of murderous intent for nearly two hours now. He was flipping his book pages and pretending to be taking notes – but when Mikasa wasn't looking, Armin could see his eyes drifted to her, studying her profile in silence while all his textbooks and pens and papers remained forgotten. And sometimes, he would stare straight at Armin and cracked his knuckles – as though itching to circle his fingers around Armin's thin neck and strangle him. No question, he had to get out of here – as soon as he could still remain intact.

"I think I need to-" he started, but his words turned into a loud cry of pain – Mikasa had stepped on his foot as hard as she could. Teary-eyed, he turned at the girl, but Mikasa shushed him silence with a single glare. "Armin thinks he needs to pick up a new book," she told a surprised Jean and quickly sent an apologetic look to the librarian for causing a commotion. Armin didn't even think of correcting her, for one, the throbbing pain on his toes certainly told him that he had to play along. He pulled the corner of his mouth and forcefully formed a smile, which looked more like a wicked smirk. "Yeah, I-" _damn, Mikasa sure stepped on his foot real hard_. "I uhh… I'm just going to get some more reference books from the shelves over there. I'll be right back."

He rose from his seat and paced toward the bookshelves several distance away, glad to be able to escape his companies. Really, today was going to be a long day.

* * *

_**-A Tale of Deceive and Deceit-**_

"Alright, I'm off," Armin called out to his two friends. It was 5 PM in the afternoon and the sun had begun to illuminate the whole town with its dying orange color in the far west – when they finally left the library. By some kind of miracle, Armin survived the 'date' today, though he could tell that Jean was getting more and more annoyed the longer time he sat next to Mikasa. He was really glad when Mikasa finally suggested for them to call it a day and go home.

"I have some place I need to go first – so you guys just go ahead," Armin waved his hand and crossed the street. "See you at school!"

Mikasa waved back, watching until the boy finally disappeared at the other end of the street, then she turned to Jean. "Don't you have to go home too…?" she asked. The other boy shook his head.

"I have some free time. I'll drop you off," replied Jean unexpectedly.

"Oh-" Mikasa was startled. "But.. there's no need to. It's not late, and your house is in the opposite direction."

"No it's fine. I'll walk you home," he insisted.

"Well then… if you say so," she nodded, not protesting any further. She knew just how hard-headed Jean could be. If he said he was going to drop her off, then nothing she say could change it. The pair began to walk side by side to the train station – not having anything to say to each other. She sighed inwardly. It was precisely what she had been dreading the whole day – this awkward silence when she was alone with him. She had (sort-of, she admitted it) tricked Armin into coming today – mainly because she didn't want to have to deal with this. She didn't know how to break the silence between them, it seemed to stretch time into a definition of forever. Honestly, she would even prefer having to face Eren and his potty mouth again rather than being here. At least with him, she always had something to say (even if it's just a response to his crassy, completely inconsiderate words).

But she could never be that way with Jean. Even though he was undoubtedly nicer than Eren, it would be no longer than five minutes before she ran out of topic to talk to him – and it started drifting into an uncomfortable silence. She wondered why, it almost seemed like a boy's attitude had no correlation to how comfortable she would feel with him. Otherwise, why would it feel more comfortable for her being with a complete jerk like Eren – instead of the nicer person? Strange indeed.

Ayako would have an answer to it, probably. She'd had more experience with boys than any other person in school.

"You know, Ackerman," said Jean, when they finally arrived at her house. Mikasa thanked him, and was just going to open the lock of her front gates when he spoke. She stopped to listen to him. It had been his first words in their trip back to her home – none of them said _anything_ at all along the way, the heavy silence was becoming almost unbearable for her.

"Well, how should I put it…," Jean scratched his head, then heaved a deep sigh. "If you didn't want to spend the day with me, you could have told, y'know. I woulda been fine with it." He didn't look directly at her when he spoke, but his words could never hit more direct.

"I mean… I could see you didn't enjoy today, and well…," now he finally looked at her. He didn't look upset, instead he looked a little bit sad. Mikasa's heart sank to her throat.

"If you woulda told me… I wouldn't… force you or anything, y'know? Ah…" He stopped awkwardly, then scratched his head a few times. Mikasa still didn't reply.

"I guess I spoke too much. Good night, Mikasa," he bent his body a little, giving her a last greeting, then left without as much as looking at her. Mikasa didn't move from her spot until she saw Jean's back disappearing on the corner at the end of her block. Shaking her head slightly, she tried to get some pieces of herself together. Half of her was too stunned, the other half was feeling terrible – extremely guilty at his words.

All of this time she was only thinking of herself – how she _didn't_ want to spend the day with him. She never thought of how it would feel for him. She thought that he wouldn't find out – that she could still pretend to be enjoying today, but he didn't buy it. She had even dragged Armin into this, thinking that it would be the best course of action, but she knew no justifications could have made her look better. At the core of it, she was just a self-centered, mean, low-rate bastard who was too afraid to face the consequences. Ayako was right, she'd had no sense of self-responsibility.

And now, she'd hurt Jean. He didn't deserve to be hurt because of her selfishness.

She wanted to cry.

She inhaled deeply, and blinked a few times to get rid of tears that had begun to sting her eyes. Slowly she opened the front gates to her house, and called, "I'm home."

_Somehow, lying had become her specialty. She didn't remember since when, but she was used to making her way out by pretending._

Her mother's cheerful voice replied, "Welcome back." She was relieved. Tonight was not a night of fright.

"How was your day?" asked Kyoko. She was sitting on the couch in the living room, knitting a hand-made sweater, probably a Christmas present for her. Mikasa took off her shoes and sat beside her.

"It was nice," she smiled.

_It seemed though, that lately she had gotten bad at it._

* * *

_**-A Tale of Bravery and Rules-**_

"You can just take that back, boy!" shouted Taniyama angrily, but Eren made no attempt to listen to him. His fist landed square on the jaw of one of Taniyama's cronies, and knocked him flat to the ground.

"Sorry," he said with a mock bored voice, pretending to stuff his pinky finger into his ear and dig out some ear dung. "I can't hear you. Take _what_ back, exactly? That you're all just a bunch of cowardly losers who only have the guts to bully someone when you're in your precious little group? I'm not wrong, am I?" he waved his hand mockingly, and Taniyama's face flushed red with anger.

"Oi Eren," he felt Armin's hand on his shoulder, "It's okay, let's just get out of here. There's no need to fight…"

"What are you saying, Armin? We're already _in_ one," said Eren, his tone was full of some kind of twisted amusement.

"You're damn right you are!" Taniyama yelled. Eren merely snorted as a response.

"Yeah yeah, bring it on. You don't put up much of a fight anyway," he said, provoking them even further.

Armin looked between the two parties warily. Suddenly the back alley on the schoolyard had become much too cramped for them, or the upcoming fight. Anxiously he glanced around –looking for a way to get himself and Eren out safely. Though, now that he realized it, Eren would sooner have started a fight rather than follow the sound advice of escaping and avoiding trouble. That boy was much too hot-blooded. He sighed.

It had all started because of him again – he was being bullied, and someone had to save him again. The other day it was Mikasa. Today it was Eren. Honestly, he was getting sick of it – he was always being a trouble to his friends. If only he wasn't such a weak, good-for-nothing runt, no one would have to run to help him. And he wouldn't have to watch Eren getting in trouble for standing up to him against these bullies.

Taniyama crouched down to help his friend get up from the ground, and as he did, Armin had never seen him look at anyone with as much fury as what he directed to Eren. With a leap, he lunged toward Eren, his fist up, aiming at his face. Not wasting any time, Eren blocked the incoming attack and sent a kick toward his opponent's open abdomen. As though that wasn't enough, he grabbed Taniyama's head with his hands, and slammed his skull to Taniyama's – producing a loud 'thunk' that made Armin cringe. Taniyama was knocked cold on the ground on the next second. Armin didn't know if he was unconscious, but that skull bash by Eren sure did seem painful. Armin doubted if Taniyama would be able to get up on his feet again anytime soon.

"One down," said Eren. "What's wrong? You lots fight like girls," he scoffed. Another one lunged at him, but he was taken care of as easily as his friend. Soon he was also down, with Eren's satisfied smirk above him, waving two fingers. "Two down… now, where's the third one?"

Armin was also looking. He thought the third person had somehow escaped the situation – but his eyes widened in horror when he saw a silhouette behind Eren.

"Eren, look out!" he cried, but he was too late. Taniyama's other friend had landed a kick directly on Eren's ribs. Off-guard and with no means to defend himself, Eren received the full blow, and was knocked several steps back. Coughing, he crouched down to hold the pain and tried to pull himself together, but another hit soon struck his face, bringing stars in front of his eyes.

"Eren!" Armin screamed. His opponent struck him with several more repetitive blows to his face, and a horrified Armin quickly ran off to help him. However, at that time, the figure of a girl quickly approached the scene from behind, grabbed Eren's opponent by the back of his collar, and with the force of a superhuman, she threw him to the ground.

"Leave," said that girl to her opponent, towering coldly over him – who was still lying on the ground, trying to process the situation. A surprised Eren and Armin merely stared at the girl who had just rushed into the scene to help them, who turned out to be none other than Mikasa. Stunned, they both exchanged glances, finding nothing to say.

"Leave," she repeated, louder this time, making a move toward her opponent to threaten him. "Now," she added. Sensing that she really wasn't joking with her words, the bully turned around and stumbled forward, then ran as fast as his feet could bring him.

"We don't need your help."

That was Eren. Standing up with Armin's help, he sent a cross glance toward Mikasa, who merely returned it with her trademark emotionless gaze.

"You certainly looked like you did," she replied unpleasantly. Eren continued to eye her with an irritated look – the corner of his lips were pulled up to form a taunting smile, and he asked again to her, mockingly, "So, what is the class chairman going to do now? Report us to the teachers…?"

He was eyeing her with a challenging look – as though daring her to tell the teacher that the new transfer student had been involved in a fist brawl during his first few days in the new school. She didn't know what's wrong with him, but he seemed to always make it his job to annoy her. Lightly she dusted her skirt and blazer before replying, her answer was concise and impassive, as short as a word.

"No."

She could see his surprised look, and she went on, "Why do you suppose I will report you?"

"Because we're breaking your favorite _rules_," he answered, emphasizing his point. "And you are always one to follow rules, aren't you, golden girl?"

She sent him a scornful look, but answered nevertheless.

"There are rules, yes. But we have _brains_. Sometimes, the right thing to do doesn't always comply with rules. And I'd break the rule anytime if it was to save my friends." She threw him a clean white towel, which he caught by surprise.

"You better treat your face, before a teacher sees that and asks you about it," she said, lightly nodding to the cracked skin and bloodied fist marks that had begun to show themselves on Eren's face. With that, she turned around and headed back to school – leaving both of them in stunned silence.

"Let's go," said Armin, but Eren wasn't listening. He was too astonished at her words. Unconsciously, his fingers wrapped around the towel that she had thrown, clutching the material tightly and closing it inside his hand.

* * *

**Wow, I've gotten a lot more reviews for the last chapter than any other chapters before. Thank you so much TwT I can't describe how truly grateful I am for each and every one of your words. It made me really happy to know that there are some people out there who are constantly looking forward to my works, so... thank you :)**

**PS: To that guest/anonymous review who left me such a sweet message and told me to never stop writing cause I made your day and possibly some other people's day... I just.. I have no more words to say TwT **

**That was sweet, way beyond sweet. And if reading my works can really make your day, then I will never stop writing :) Thank you for liking my work, and sorry I'm such a dork who's terribly slow at updating.**

**I ****love you all, thanks for reading my works! **

**See you in the next chapter.**


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